122 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
At present I do not know anybody near the sea-side that will 
take the trouble to remark at what time of the moon woodcocks 
first come : if I lived near the sea myself I would soon tell 
you more of the matter. One thing I used to observe when I 
was a sportsman, that there were times in which woodcocks 
were so sluggish and sleepy, that they would drop again when 
THE NIGHTINGALK. 
flushed, just before the spaniels ; nay, just at the muzzle of a 
gun that had been fired at them. Whether this strange laziness 
was the effect of a recent fatiguing journey I shall not presume 
to say. 
Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland and 
Scotland, but also, as I have been always told, Devonshire and 
Cornwall In those two last counties we cannot attribute the 
