528 CLASS AVES. 



snipe. Concealed in reeds and rushes, it remains there so 

 pertinaciously that it is necessary almost to walk upon it to 

 make it rise. Its flight is less rapid and more direct than 

 that of the common snipe. Its fat is equally fine, and its 

 flesh similarly well-flavoured. It is not very common in this 

 country. 



There is a number of other species of woodcock and 

 snipe, as may be seen by our table, but there is nothing 

 in their habits to induce us to exceed the limits to which we 

 are necessarily prescribed in this portion of our work. 



We must also dismiss, without any supplementary notice 

 to the text, those African and Indian birds, to which MM. 

 Cuvier and Vieillot have given the name Rhynch.ea, and 

 for the same reason. The figure of the Cape Snipe, described 

 at page 371, will illustrate this genus. 



The birds of the division Limosa, or Godwits, are to be 

 distinguished from the foregoing. The woodcocks, properly so 

 called, inhabit woods. The snipes live in fresh water marshes ; 

 but the limosas prefer the sea-shore. The passage of the last 

 into the temperate climates of Europe takes place in September, 

 and, for their short stay, they frequent salt marshes, where, 

 like the snipes, &c. they live on small worms, which they 

 draw out of the mud. Those which are sometimes to be met 

 with in inland places, have doubtless been driven there by the 

 wind. Mauduyt, who observed some of them exposed for 

 sale in the Parisian markets, in spring, concluded, and 

 justly, that they make a second passage in spring, and not 

 that they ever nestle on the French coasts. These timid birds, 

 whose sight moreover is weak, remain in the shade during 

 the day-time, and it is only by evening twilight, or early 

 da^vn, that they proceed in search of food, for the discrimi- 

 nation of which their bill is particularly fitted. Little stones 

 are sometimes found in their gizzard, but we cannot conclude 

 that these hard substances answer with them, as with the 



