THE MIGRATION OF WOODCOCKS 279 



sun was right in my eyes," or " There was agreat tree 

 in the way," or "the bird was going back right 

 over the beaters, and so one had to shoot in a hurry," 

 and so forth. The fact remains ; the bird has been 

 missed, and may not be seen again that day. In 

 certain favoured districts — in the west of England 

 and in Ireland, for example — such an event would 

 cause but little disappointment, the supply of cocks 

 being sufficiently good to allow of plenty of misses, 

 and yet to provide a good bag of " longbills " at 

 the end of the day. 



In Cornwall the first flights generally arrive 

 about the second week in October and with the 

 wind at any point from south to east. In one year, 

 however, a continuance of north-east winds to the 

 end of October, with a waning moon, brought a 

 large flight of woodcocks to the Land's End district. 

 One gun then killed fifty-four in a week, and another 

 thirty-nine in a day. 



In Northumberland these birds have been 

 observed to arrive in the greatest numbers in hazy 

 weather with little wind, and that blowing from the 

 north-east. In Norfolk it has been remarked that 

 the nocturnal migrations of the Woodcock are 

 influenced rather by the wind than the moon, and 

 they have been found quite abundant on that coast 

 after a dark night with the wind from the north or 

 north-east. In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire some 

 of the largest flights have been known to arrive 

 about October 10 or 12 with a strong east wind, 

 fog, and drizzling rain. At Spurn Point sixty have 

 been shot in one morning after a fresh north-east 



