MIGRATION OF WOODCOCKS. 161 
the wing, is exceeded by few, if any, of tlie 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 coasts, 
may they not have crossed the wide Atlantic, and 
taken their departure from America? The answer 
is decisive of the contrary, the American Wood- 
cock being entirely different from the British species. 
Having said thus much, we think some light may 
be thrown upon this obscure subject, by examining 
the above facts, and comparing them with some 
others, which are equally well-known, about Wood- 
cocks. 
In the first place, their lean, poor, and often scurfy 
condition, is not owing to exhaustion from length of 
flight ; because, not only those which are found on 
the eastern coast, are usually very weak and reduced, 
but even those which are killed in Norway, before 
the migration has taken place, are found to be al- 
ready in an emaciated state, and infested with vermin. 
In a short time, however, after frequenting their 
favourite haunts in our country, they become fat 
and plump, and then, as the season advances, they 
usually fall off, and the flesh of those that have been 
accidentally met with in the summer, is found to be 
hard and dry. That their fatigue may be the con- 
sequence of this previous debility', is therefore not 
improbable; but it is not the cause. We will next 
touch upon their first appearance on our western 
instead of our eastern shores. It is a generally 
VOL. II. M 
