524 CLASS AVES. 



We cannot conclude that, anteriorly to the insertion of the 

 bill, smell had any thing more to do with the precision of the 

 action than sight. The organ of this sense is in general so 

 obtuse among birds, that it is contrary to analogy to sup- 

 pose the woodcock peculiarly privileged in its enjoyment, 

 more especially as, in consequence of the fleshy substance 

 which terminates its upper mandible, it is already endued 

 with a species of tact calculated to enable it to discover suit- 

 able aliment in wet and muddy ground. 



About the month of March the woodcocks generally 

 return to their mountains, and are then mated. It is pre- 

 tended that they never rest at night during their migrations. 

 But how is it possible to ascertain a fact like this ? which 

 is moreover inconsistent with the observations we have above 

 stated relative to their quiescence during this period. They 

 usually remain during summer in the most solitary and 

 elevated mountains of Savoy, Switzerland, Jura, the Vosges, 

 &c. Though some remain, as we have before remarked, in 

 England, and also in the most elevated districts of France. 



These birds, by nature solitary and wild, are mute, except 

 in the season of love. They then utter diiferent cries, imne- 

 cessary to be described to those who have heard them, and 

 useless to those who have not. The males, as usual with 

 birds, dispute violently for the females, and fight so des- 

 perately with their bills, that they sometimes fall to the earth 

 exhausted or dead. Their nests are composed of leaves, or 

 dry plants, mingled with little twigs of wood, put together 

 inartificially, and heaped up on the ground against the trunk 

 of some tree, or under a thick root. The eggs are four or 

 five, of an oblong form, reddish grey, marbled with deeper 

 shades, and a little more bulky than those of the common 

 pigeon. They are said to be very good eating. While the 

 female is sitting, the male is almost always close to her, and 

 their bills rest mutually on each other's backs. When the 



