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the latter end of July or beginning of August; and on the 28 th of 
the former month I killed 15 Snipes, and at that time used to kill 
constantly 5, & 6 couple — these I presume are the offsprings of the 
birds which remain here during the breeding season, and old 
Standford with Palgrave killed 33 couple just before harvest. 
The Snipes leave us about the beginning of December, but this 
entirely depends upon the state their feeding grounds are in, and 
they are much more influenced by the frost than rain — one night’s 
severe frost will sometimes drive them all away ; whereas they will 
resort to Turnip fields in wet weather, and I believe get as good a 
living from worms there, as in the fens : when we shoot Snipes in 
frost the birds are thin, in wet weather they are fat — for instance, 
in the present extreme wet season. I have not said any thing 
about your migration hypothesis, for I perfectly agree with you — tis 
a pity you have not some friend in Devonshire, Ireland, South of 
France. Spain and Portugal, I shall now transcribe a passage from 
Montagu on the Migration of the Woodcock, who has exactly the 
same idea on those birds as you have with respect to the Snipes. 
It is generally admitted that woodcocks are more plentiful in 
Devonshire, and Cornwall, than in any other part of England, but 
they are not near so numerous as in Ireland, and they seem to 
increase in number, in the western parts of that Kingdom. From 
this circumstance it should appear, that the great column of wood- 
cocks in their passage to and from the North, fly in that latitudinal 
direction, which is intersected by the western parts of Ireland. 
Those which continue their route further south, would find their 
next resting place in Portugal ; and as that part of the continent 
of Europe, is in the same latitudinal direction with Ireland, we 
should expect to find them equally plentiful in that country. In 
this we have not been disappointed; for we have lately been assured 
by our friend Capt. Latham, who is with the combined army in 
Portugal, that woodcocks are very plentiful in November. This 
gentleman in a letter to the author says “ We have been so much 
in motion, that I have not had much time for shooting, but I have 
some days killed 14 or 16 couple of woodcocks to a pointer, in low 
shrubs.” It seems they become scarcer as the Winter advances 
even in that country, so that we may reasonably infer, that a large 
portion continue the same latitudinal direction Southward, until 
they arrive in Africa. In the beginning of March on their return 
