WOODCOCKS AND SNIPES. 
339 
for they, except at the breeding-season, seem to shun not 
only other birds, hut even their own species. It may he 
said that this is incorrect, because often in the same woods, 
or favourite marshy haunts, they may he occasionally put up 
in considerable numbers ; hut in these cases it should he 
remembered, that if many are found, the number depends not 
upon any social feeling, hut the attraction of their common 
food ; a large proportion of their lives being passed alone in 
the solitude of a marsh, or the shaded retirement of a wood. 
If undisturbed, and in some cases even although disturbed, 
there will the Woodcock or the Snipe remain, till called away 
by that instinctive faculty which compels them to visit regions 
far distant, and still* more solitary ; where, without fear of 
intrusion, they may rear their young broods. Every sports- 
man is well aware of the attachment evinced by these birds 
for some favoured spot. Upon the same patch of rushy, 
marshy ground, the same Jack-Snipe may he found, day after 
day, in spite of the 
annoyance to which 
it is often exposed 
from an indifferent 
marksman : up rises 
the little bird from 
its rushy covert, 
turning and winding 
swiftly through the 
air, and thus es- 
caping charge after 
charge of shot, which 
only seems to add 
vigour to its wings; 
and after a wide 
whirl or two, down 
it starts again, often within a few yards of the seat of 
danger. 
The difficulty of hitting this active little bird is indeed 
so proverbial, that we can readily believe a story told of a 
gentleman, — a very had shot, — who having at length suc- 
z 2 
Snipe. 
