Natural History^ — Zoology. 199 
lation than the Woodcock. Previous, however, to my advancing 
reasons for such an opinion, I beg to communicate the account 
which is given of the woodcock in Bewick’s History of Birds. 
— It is said to inhabit every climate; it leaves the countries 
bordering upon the Baltic in the autumn and setting-in of win- 
ter, on its route to this country. They do not come in large 
flocks, but keep dropping in upon our shores singly, or some- 
times in pairs, from the beginning of October till December. 
They must have the instinctive precaution of landing only in the 
night, or in dark misty weather, for they are never seen to ar- 
rive ; but are frequently discovered the next morning in any 
ditch which affords shelter, the more particularly after extra- 
ordinary fatigue occasioned by the adverse gales, which they often 
have to encounter in their aerial voyage. They do not remain 
near the shore, to take their rest, longer than a day, but common- 
ly find themselves sufficiently recruited in that time, to proceed 
inland, to the very same haunts which they left the preceding 
season.” — Two cases are advanced in support of this’ last asser- 
tion; the first is, that, in the winter of 179 T, the gamekeeper of 
E. Pleydell, Esq. of Whitcombe, in Dorsetshire, brought him 
a woodcock, which he had caught in a net set for rabbits, alive 
and unhurt. Mr Pleydell marked the date upon a small piece 
of thin brass, bent it round the woodcock’s leg, and let it fly. 
In December in the next year, Mr Pleydell shot this bird, with 
the brass about its leg, in the very same wood where it had 
been first caught by the gamekeeper. The second case is that 
of a white woodcock having been seen three successive win- 
ters in Penrice Wood, near Penrice Castle, Glamorganshire. 
It was repeatedly flushed and shot at during that time, in 
the very same place where it was first discovered. At last, 
it was found dead, with several others, v/hich had perished 
by the severity of the weather in the winter of 1793 . — 
In further proof of the woodcock returning to its former haunt, 
I have to state, that one was seen in Ireland some years ago, of 
a slate-colour, on a particular estate, three successive winters ; its 
existence, however, was not prolonged from a succession of un- 
fortunate shots, as mentioned of the bird in Wales, but from a 
very different cause. The proprietor of the spot which this 
woodcock had chosen for its retreat, was a sportsman, and meet- 
