46 
CO.AllVJON WOODCOCK. 
of their arrival depends considerably on the prevail- 
ing winds ; for adverse winds always detain them, 
they not being able to struggle with the boisterous 
squalls of the northern ocean : after their arrival in 
bad weather, they have often been seen so much 
exhausted as to allow themselves to be seized by the 
hand when they alighted near the coast. They live 
on worms and insects; and the number of the former 
that they devour is very considerable ; they search 
for them with their long bills in soft ground and 
moist w^oods, feeding and flying principally in the 
night : they go out in the evening ; and generally 
return in the same direction, or through the same 
glades, to their day retreat. 
The greater part of them leave this country about 
the latter end of February or the beginning of March, 
always pairing before they set out. They retire to 
the coast, and if the wind be fair, set out immedi- 
ately ; but, if contrary, they are often detained in 
the neighbouring woods and thickets for some time : 
in this crisis the sportsmen are all on the alert, and 
the whole surrounding country echoes the discharge 
of guns. But if they are detained long on the dry 
heather, they become so lean as to be scarcely eatable. 
The instant a fliir wind springs up, they seize the 
opportunity ; and where the sportsman has seen hun- 
dreds in one day, he will not find a single bird the 
next. Very few of them remain in England ; and 
perhaps with respect to those that do, it may be owing 
to their having been so wounded by the sportsmen 
in the winter, as to be disabled from taking their 
long journey in spring. They build their artless 
