66 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
I 
way, while it is in queft of its food ; therefore, in 
thofe places, barriers and avenues formed of fticks, 
ftones, &c. are conftruded fo as to weir it into the 
fatal openings where it is entrapped : in like man- 
ner, a low fence made of the tops of broom ftuck 
into the ground, acrofs the wet furrow of a field, or 
a runner from a fpring which is not frozen, is fufE- 
cient to flay its progrefs, and to make it feek from 
fide to fide for an opening through which it might 
pafs, and there it feldom efcapes the noofe that is 
fet to fecure it. 
At the root of the firfl quill in each wing is a 
fmall-pointed narrow feather very elaflic, and much 
fought after by painters, by whom it is ufed as a 
pencil. A feather of a fimilar kind is found in 
the whole of this tribe, and alfo in every one of the 
Tringas and Plovers which the author has exa- 
mined. The annexed figure reprefents a fcapular 
feather of the Woodcock. 
