1174 Birds. 



was then high, and very swift, perfectly different from its usual owl- 

 like mode of flying when disturbed in cover. Soon after it has crossed 

 the sea, I have flushed it in hedges, and even shot it in the open fields, 

 particularly in turnip-fields. It returns to us at the eud of March, or 

 the beginning of April, on its migration to northern summer quarters. 

 Mr. Yarrell observes (vol. ii. p. 587), u a woodcock when flushed on 

 the coast has been known to settle on the sea, and when again dis- 

 turbed, rose without difficulty and flew away." This, however, ap- 

 pears at variance with the following fact related by Sir C. Sharp, in 

 his ' List of Birds' (p. 16), " many woodcocks were found drowned on 

 the north sands near Hartlepool, about twelve years since, in the 

 spring, supposed to have met with a contrary wind." The woodcock 

 has been known to breed in the woods above Stokesley. A friend, 

 who has passed two or three winters at Frankfort on the Maine, tells 

 me that woodcocks are plentiful in that part of Germany, and that the 

 method of shooting them is in the dusk of the evening, when each 

 sportsman, stationing himself at a different part or corner of the wood, 

 shoots the birds as they fly past in proceeding to their feeding grounds. 

 He adds, that their call-note is a hoarse noise, something like the 

 croak of a frog, and gives notice of their approach. Woodcocks (Bec- 

 caccie) to my own knowledge are abundant in the winter near Rome ; 

 and they are still more so in the woods of Albania. 



Great Snipe, Double or Solitary Snipe, Scolopax major. The 

 specimen mentioned in my 'Catalogue of Birds' ('Hist. Stock.' p. 11, 

 No. 87), was shot by a gentleman, in company with Mr. J. Grey, near 

 Newport on the Tees. Common in the Pontine Marshes near Rome. 



Common Snipe, Scolopax Gallinago. A few remain during the 

 year. In its migrations hither it is very uncertain : in the winters 

 of 1838 and 1839, scarcely a snipe frequented our marshes near the 

 Tees, where formerly there used to be vast numbers. A good many 

 arrived in February, 1843, but few in the same period of 1844. 



Obs. — The bird named in my Catalogue, No. 86, the Russian 

 snipe, and which has been rarely met with in our saltmarshes near 

 Cowpen, and which is said to be without the yellowish-white lines on 

 the back, is, I think, most probably Sabine's snipe, [Scolopax Sabini). 

 I have never yet been fortunate enough to see an example of it. 



Jack Snipe, Judcock, Scolopax Gallinula. A solitary and silent 

 bird, coming here before the woodcock. The bill of the snipes and 

 woodcock is admirably adapted to digging in soft and wet ground; 

 the end, being spongy and cellular, gives the bird the power of dis- 



