216 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



travel in the night, and usually strike our 

 seaboard about daybreak. Upon their first 

 arrival, many of them are in an exhausted con- 

 dition, and lie just where they have pitched 

 until darkness again sets in. At nightfall they 

 pass on. If the birds experience a fair passage, 

 they do not touch our eastern coast, but, keep- 

 ing well within the upper air, first drop in our 

 western woods, or even those of Ireland. 



The passage of this species is, curiously 

 enough, invariably preceded by flocks of tiny 

 Goldcrests ; and so invariable is the rule, that 

 the latter have come to be called " Woodcock- 

 pilots." The males precede the females by a 

 few days, the latter bringing with them the 

 young that have been bred that year. It is a 

 point worthy of notice, and one upon which 

 much confusion exists, that these migrants are 

 usually in the very best condition. Soon after 

 their arrival they disperse themselves over the 

 leaf-strewn woods, and individual birds are 

 known to resort to the same spots for many 

 successive years. They seek out the warmer 

 parts of the wood, and in such secluded situa- 

 tions rest and sleep during the day. At dusk 

 they issue forth, in their peculiar owl-like 



