FLIGHT OF WOODCOCKS. 
163 
the rigging. With these premises before us, we think 
the mystery is, if not entirely removed, at least much 
lessened, and a first landing on the western shores of 
Ireland, and the Scilly Islands, fairly and easily ac- 
counted for ; the birds naturally, as day approached, 
sinking downwards to the nearest land. 
That their flight, too, is rapid to the last, is further 
proved by many instances having occurred, of their 
killing themselves by flying against the glass of the 
Eddystone Light-house. Of their speed, indeed, 
some estimation may be formed, by one which struck 
against the plate-glass of a light-house on the coast 
of Ireland, and broke a pane, cast for the place, of 
unusual strength, viz., from a to b ( a _g ), being 
more than three-eighths of an inch thick ; the blow 
was so violent, that, in addition to the glass being 
broken, the bird was found dead, with its breast- 
bone, and both wings, also smashed. Again, no less 
than five Woodcocks have killed themselves, in a 
similar manner, against the plate-glasses of the 
South-Stack light-house, in Anglesey. 
There was a time when W oodcocks might be almost 
said to be as plentiful as Wood-Pigeons are now; at 
least they abounded to such a degree, that catching 
them was a regular trade ; and so late as fifty years 
ago, they were sold at the moderate rate of from 
six to seven pence a couple ; but, like Starlings, 
Wood-Pigeons, and several other birds, they have, 
of late years, diminished in numbers. 
As far as concerns Woodcocks, this, indeed, may 
easily be accounted for. In the first place, the de- 
mand, not for the full-grown birds merely, but for 
the eggs, has greatly increased in Sweden, where 
