f 3 l ° ] 
light mail be more calculated to difUnguifli objects 
by night than by day 
The fad therefore is notorious to thofe who cut 
'glades in their woods, and fix nets for catching thefe 
birds, that they never ftir but as it begins to be dark, 
after which they return again by day-break, when 
their fight even then is fo indifferent, that they ftrike 
againft the net, and thus become entangled. 
No one with us ever thinks of fixing or attending 
fuch nets in fummer for woodcocks, becaufe it i3 
not then fuppoi'ed that there is any fuch bird in the 
ifland ; if they tried this experiment, however, I 
muft own that I believe they would have fport -f*. 
Mr. Reinhold Forfter, F. R. S. who is an able 
naturaliff, informs me, that the fowlers in the neigh- 
bourhood of Dantzick kill many woodcocks about St. 
John’s day (or Midfummer), in the following man- 
* I conceive alfo, it is from the eyes looking fo dull, that 
this bird is generally confidered as being fo foolilh : hence the 
Africans call the woodcock hammar el badgel^ or the partiidge’s 
afs. Shaw’s Phyf. Obf. cb. li. 
f [ would afk thofe who will probably laugh at the very idea 
of fuch (port (which I do not, however, abfoiutely infure), whe- 
ther, if I was to fend them to any part of the Britifh coaft to 
catch the true anchovy, or tunny fifn, they would not fuppofe 
equally that it was a fool’s errand. 
Notwithftanding, however, this incredulity, I can produce 
the authority of both Ray (Syn. Pifc. p. 107.) and Mr. Pen- 
nant (Brit. Zocl. ill. p. 34. 36.), that the true anchovy is caught 
in the fea not far from (Jhelter, and the tunny fifii on the coaft 
of Argylefhire, together with the herrings, where they ate called 
mackrel j lure . 
Is it not amazing, however, that a fifh of fuch a fize as the 
-tunny Ihould never have been heard of, even by the Scotch na- 
turalift Sir Robert Sibbald ? 
»er. 
