WOODCOCK. 
245 
remain with us the whole of that season. During the day, they 
keep to the woods and thickets, and, at the approach of evening, 
seek the springs and open watery places to feed in. They 
soon disperse themselves over the country to breed. About 
the beginning of July, particularly in long continued hot 
weather, they descend to the marshy shores of our large rivers, 
their favourite springs and watery recesses inland being chiefly 
dried up. To the former of these retreats they are pursued 
by the merciless sportsman, flushed by dogs, and shot down in 
great numbers. This species of amusement, when eagerly 
followed, is still more laborious and fatiguing than that of 
Snipe shooting ; and, from the nature of the ground, or cripple, 
as it is usually called, viz. deep mire intersected with old logs, 
which are covered and hid from sight by high reeds, weeds, 
and alder bushes, the best dogs are soon tired out ; and it is 
case with the present, which is generally classed under those with the tibiae 
feathered and the tibiae bare. Vieillot, following this division, proposed 
Rusticola for the Woodcocks, or those with plumed tibiae ; and, as far as arti- 
ficial systems are concerned, and facility of reference, we should prefer keeping 
them as a sub-genus. 
The Woodcocks, in addition to the plumed tibiae, differ in other respects ; 
and an individual, technically unacquainted with ornithology, would at once 
pick them out from the Snipes, from a something in their tourneur , as Mr 
Audubon would call it. The tarsi are much shorter, and shew that the bird is 
not intended to wade, or to frequent very marshy situations, like the Snipes. 
They are all inhabitants of woods, and it is only during severe storms that they 
are constantly found near a rill or streamlet. Their food is as much found by 
searching under the fallen leaves and decayed grasses, as in wet places ; and 
in this country, where Woodcocks are abundant, they may be traced through 
a wood by the newly scratched up leaves. There is a marked difference, also, 
in the plumage ; it is invariably of a more sombre shade, sometimes the under 
parts are closely barred with a darker colour ; while, in the Snipes, the latter 
part is oftener pure white. We have a beautiful connection between the 
divisions in the Scolopax Sabini of Vigors, * which, though of the lesser size 
of the Snipes, has the entire plumage of the Woodcock, and also the thighs 
feathered to a greater length downwards. 
The species are few in number, amounting only to three or four. America, 
Europe, and India, seem as yet their only countries. The habits of most 
agree, and all partially migrate from north to south to breed. — Ed. 
* Is this the Scolopax Sakhalina of Vieillot,. Norn. Diet, f — Ed. 
