320 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



of England to nest, and the stock throughout the kingdom is largely 

 increased. We generally saw the first Woodcock on 7th or 8th October, 

 on Dartmoor. The bird would usually flip up from the heather at some 

 spot where it was least expected, not unfrequently when we were sitting 

 by the side of a big stone eating our lunch, and, disappearing at once 

 over a rounded hillock, would be lost ere we could mark it down. We 

 never found many Woodcocks on the open moor, but sometimes they 

 would be plentiful in the small covers on its edges. During heavy snow 

 we have known ujjwards of twenty couple of Woodcocks to have been 

 shot in one day on the Braunton Burrows, and in similar weather large 

 bags are made in the woods at Lynmouth. In one famous cock-cover in 

 North Devon we have been told of thirty-five and a half couple having 

 been shot in a day's beat. In former days, before the island had become 

 cultivated, great numbers used to resoi't to Lundy in severe winters, such 

 as that of 1860, when we had the good luck to be visiting there. A 

 heavy fall of snow brought us at once a large flight of Woodcocks, which 

 made their appearance all over the island, one being actually found in 

 the kennel squatting in a corner, and another in the " garden,"* hiding 

 behind the stump of a cabbage. On the first day we went after them we 

 made a bag of ninety-three head, Cock and Snipe, but the greater part 

 consisted of Cock. The birds would be frequently noticed either running 

 over the snow in front of the dogs, or squatting two together by the 

 side of a tump of grass or small tuft of furze, their bills resting on the 

 snow, and their tails overlapping, offering, when flushed, a very easy 

 double shot. As the snow and frost continued for three weeks, we had 

 constant fresh arrivals of Woodcocks, single birds being noticed in the 

 daytime coming down from a height and pitching on the ground, and we 

 had excellent sport every day we went out. Occasionally, when a Wood- 

 cock was flushed, it uttered a chattering cry, very similar to that of the 

 Fieldfare, and we do not remember to have heard this cry anywhere else. 

 Sometimes a Cock, shot at the edge of the sidlings, fell over into the sea 

 below, where it was instantly seized and devoured by Gulls. Most 

 sportsmen who have shot Woodcocks must have had instances in their 

 experience of birds dropping as if dead to the shot, and then rising again 

 and going off as if completely uninjured when an attempt was made to 

 pick them up. In the game-larder at Lundy we had many couple of Cock 

 deposited on the shelves which had been shot on Christmas Eve, and 

 none being wanted for the next day, the door was not opened until the 

 morning of the 26th, when we heard screams proceeding from its neiglibour- 

 hood, and found they came from the cook, who, on entering the larder, 

 had discovered four or five of the Woodcocks " come to life again " and 

 running about on the floor ! Sometimes Woodcocks may be seen iu 

 strange places. Calling one day on a friend, we flushed one by his hall- 

 door which was squatting by the side of the scraper ; the bird disappeared 

 in the shrubbery. We were once ferreting with a keeper on the bare top 



* The garden at Lundy is only a large square pit dug out of the ground, in which 

 a few vegetables are raised. The violent winds would uproot and sweep out to sea 

 anything planted on the unprotected surface of the ground. 



