322 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



the bird so exacdy resembles in its tints and markings the fallen leaves 

 and twigs amongst which it is crouching, and the instant the bird's eye 

 has caught ours, and it has perceived that it has been seen, it has risen 

 on wing. Sometimes, instead of flying up, "Woodcocks will run on a little 

 through the cover and crouch in another shelter, and when we have been 

 standing in a ride cover-shooting we have seen two or three run across 

 one after the other. The cleverest cocking dog we ever possessed was a 

 black-and-white fox-terrier. This little animal used to find more Cocks 

 than our whole pack of spaniels, and when she came to a rhododendron 

 bush, beneath which a Cock was harbouring, she would prick her ears, 

 looking steadfastly forward in the direction of the bird, standing for a 

 few seconds pointing with one fore leg raised, generally giving us time to 

 come up before her pounce into the bush flushed the bird. She was also 

 an excellent retriever, finding and bringing us the Cocks from the densest 

 tangle, or from the streams into which they were sometimes dropped ; and, 

 in our opinion, the picking up and bringing to the bag a dead Cock is, in 

 a difficult cover, quite as meritorious an act, and to be counted as far 

 towards the attainment of the bird, as the mere shooting of it. In spite 

 of good retrievers Cocks arc very fre(]uently lost, especially in furzy covers 

 intersected by small streams, as the birds, falling into the water, are 

 carried down and deposited under some tangled growth of furze and 

 bramble, where it is impossible to discover them. In very hard frosts 

 the thick orchard hedges, which generally have warm ditches by their 

 sides, are in North Devon a very favourite harbour ibr Woodcocks, and 

 many are shot from them. They are then also found by the banks of 

 little streams, where they will sometimes be flushed in company with 

 Snipe. 



"Woodcocks are extremely impatient of a high wind, leaving the ex- 

 posed covers, and crossing the valley to the sheltered sides. The best 

 AVoodcock-covers will prove almost blank if they are tried when a cold 

 rough wind has been for a day or two blowing directly into them ; and, 

 like Snipe, "Woodcocks are continually shifting about with the various 

 changes of the weather. One afternoon, when the season was far ad- 

 vanced, finding a dozen or more Cocks in one corner of a small cover, we 

 sent to a friend, who we knew would be very pleased to have a fe^y shots 

 at them, to come and shoot with us the following day, but he came only 

 to find that they had all passed on elsewhere during the night. 



At the end of October Woodcocks are not unseldom flushed in turnip- 

 fields ; they are fond of thick furze-brakes on hill-sides, and in covers 

 which have been largely planted with rhododendrons it is found that the 

 Woodcocks gladly shelter beneath the clumps. Woods with plenty of 

 oak-scrub are also favourite resorts, and the fii-st sharp frost sends all the 

 birds down to the alder-beds in the bottoms. It is well known that in 

 most districts where Woodcocks are plentiful there is some favourite spot 

 where the first Woodcock of the season is certain to be met with year 

 after year, just as there are in every cover some particular dingles or 

 bushes where a Woodcock may be always flushed, and where if one be 

 shot another will soon take its place. The Woodcock is a solitary bird ; 



