ORDER GRALL.E. 523 



large wings and short legs. It rises heavily, and makes 

 much noise at the moment it sets out. Its flight, though 

 rapid enough, is in general neither lofty nor long sustained ; 

 and it alights with so much promptitude that it seems to fall 

 like a mass to the ground. Soon after, it raises its head, 

 looks round on all sides, and runs away with remarkable 

 swiftness. 



The stupidity commonly attributed to the woodcock may 

 possibly be essentially referred to the weakness of its visual 

 organs ; with its large and convex eyes, it cannot see well 

 but by twilight. A stronger light is offensive to them ; and 

 the movements of the animal, like those of the nocturnal 

 accipitres, must be extremely uncertain at the hours in 

 which it is possible to observe them accurately. We do in- 

 deed find that its motions are much more lively at night- 

 fall and at morning dawn than at other times. The in- 

 stinct which inspires the woodcock to change place after the 

 setting or before the rising of the sun, is so natural and 

 necessary a consequence of its organization, that many indi- 

 viduals confined in apartments have been observed to take a 

 flight every morning and evening, while, during the day or 

 night, they merely jerked about, without ever rising. 



Buffon believes that they discern their food by scent rather 

 than sight, and rests this opinion on an observation of Bowles, 

 who examined these birds in an aviary at St. Ildephonse, 

 where they were daily furnished with fresh sods, full of 

 worms. However quickly these worms might endeavour to 

 conceal themselves, the woodcock would bury its bill into 

 the earth as far as the nostrils ; and having drawn it out, 

 swallow them in a moment. Much stress, however, cannot 

 be laid on this instance. The bill being inserted only as far 

 as the nostrils, proves nothing but the necessity of preserving 

 respiration ; and the bill once fixed in the earth, the posi- 

 tion of the nostrils must be a matter of total indifference. 



