M2 
MIGRATION OF WOODCOCKS. 
a new nest, at the highest part of the hedge, where he saw 
all the four eggs deposited in safety, and where they were 
afterwards hatched. He could not, however, ascertain how 
the parent birds carried these eggs. 
It remains to make a few remarks on the migration of 
Woodcocks, which is attended with more mystery than that 
of most other birds. We shall endeavour briefly to state the 
chief points for consideration. First, we have every reason 
to believe that the greater proportion, on leaving this country 
in March, retire to the wild solitudes of Norway or Sweden. 
Secondly, that on re-appearing in England, in October, they 
are, for the most part, poor and weak. Thirdly, that instead 
of being first seen on the eastern coasts, they are, for the 
most part, known to land on the western shores of Ireland, 
and, almost in flocks, on the Scilly Islands, twenty miles to 
the westward of the Land’s-End, Cornwall, quite exhausted. 
Now, on the supposition that the major part are bred in 
Norway and Sweden, if we examine a map, it will be evident 
that they ought naturally to alight on the eastern shores, as 
the nearest points. Their weak, lean, and exhausted state, 
however, supposing it to arise from fatigue, implies a far 
longer and more continued flight than that from Norway, 
which, even supposing that they prefer, for some unknown 
cause, the western to the eastern shores of our island for 
their first appearance, is quite a trifling affair for most birds ; 
the distance, in a straight line, from the nearest point of 
Norway to the Land’s-End being not more than seven or 
eight hours’ journey for a bird whose rapidity of flight, when 
once fairly on the wing, is exceeded by few, if any, of the 
feathered race. It is obvious that so short a space of time 
is by no means sufficient to occasion fatigue, and still less, 
to lower the bodily condition, so as to affect the health of the 
bird. 
But some may be ready to say, How know we that their 
flight is short ? If they land on the west coast, may they not 
have crossed the wide Atlantic, and taken their departure 
from America ? The answer is decisive of the contrary, the 
American Woodcock being entirely different from the British 
