316 THE WOODCOCK. 
because they are such delicious eating-—to my mind the king 
of all birds,—that every one shoots them on the first oppor- 
tunity, and gives no scope for the development of their ami- 
able qualities. But from what I have myself seen, I cannot 
help thinking that with a little trouble it would not be 
difficult to domesticate them. Their mode of feeding has been 
already described above; and, though I have never seen them 
at work, I have hundreds of times seen the little, rather funnel- 
shaped holes that they bore in the mud and turf alongside the 
streams where they reside; and, as you work up or down these 
latter, these holes furnish certain indications as to whether there 
are or are not Woodcock about, and where to look for them if 
there are. If they have not been disturbed they will be found 
squatting within a stone’s throw of their feeding place. 
I have found. worms of all sizes and shapes, grubs, larve, 
fragments of black coleoptera, tiny scraps of grass, and a sticky 
glutinous animal substance which I could not identify in those 
I have examined. Besides which their gizzards always contain 
a quantity of gravel. 
When migrating they are said to fly strongly and well, but 
when flushed, the flight is at first slow, uncertain and Owl-like, 
and ceases suddenly, the bird dropping instantaneously behind 
some bush. I have never had any sport with Woodcock in 
Northern India. I have often shot them, rarely more than three 
inaday; but they gaveno sort of sport. They fluttered up 
flushed by the dogs or some beater within twenty yards, and 
were knocked over by a snap shot as they hung wavering on 
first rising. One shot them because they were so good to eat ; in 
every other respect they were not worth shooting. They don’t 
seem to fly a bit as Woodcock do in covers at home, where even 
a good shot is at times baulked ; but, like Snipe, and almost every 
living thing domiciled in this “clime of the sun,” they seem to 
have become listless and sluggish. And certainly, though 
markedly smaller and lighter birds, they are very much fatter— 
balls of fat in many of them, which, unless special measures are 
adopted, it is impossible to turn into good specimens. 
Tickell gives a very good description of Woodcock-shooting 
in Nepal, which is somewhat different to what we in the North- 
West are accustomed to. He says :—“ Woodcock-shooting in 
Nepal is laborious work from the steepness of the hills and the 
spongy nature of the ground which the bird frequents. We 
found them on light rich mould, thickly matted with grasses, 
ferns, and other weeds, and everywhere furrowed by little rills 
of water trickling through the tangle, or here and there stag- 
nating in little pools or ‘ bog-holes’ concealed under a layer of 
vegetation, which formed tolerable pitfalls to the unwary intrud- 
er, receiving him sometimes up to the hip. The jungle on 
these hills is pretty thick, but not lofty, consisting mostly of 
briars and thicket ; and it would have been impossible to get a 
