UPLAND SHOOTING. 
215 
The cause of this, I suppose to be explicable thus,—that there 
is, in fact, always a two-fold migration of Woodcock in the 
autumn, that of the birds bred in these districts, which, having 
absented themselves during the moult, return immediately, that 
over, to the vicinity of their resting-places, and remain through¬ 
out the autumn,—and that of the birds bred very far north of 
us, which tarry at the north so long as the weather will permit, 
and then visit us for a few days, more or less, according to the 
state of the country and the temperature, but never make any 
protracted sojourn with us. 
In such a case as that which I have mentioned, the home-bred 
birds are probably driven southward at once by the temporary 
local snow-storm, while the northern flights, not having been 
forced to move, tarry till the last, and then hurry off, pitching 
only for a single day to rest themselves, and resuming their 
progress every night. 
Woodcock and Snipe both, it is hardly necessary to observe, 
are in a great measure nocturnal birds, and almost invariably 
make all their long voyages, and usually even their casual trips 
from one feeding ground to another, between sunset and sun¬ 
rise. I have occasionally seen Snipe travelling high in the air, 
in small whisps, during the day time in dark foggy weather 
with small rain falling : but I have never known Woodcock to 
move their quarters, unless violently aroused, until it is almost 
too dark to distinguish them on the wing. 
The weather, in which both these swift passengers love best 
to roam, is dull, hazy, and sometimes even rainy, and that com¬ 
monly on the breaking of a north-easterly storm. This is par¬ 
ticularly the case with the Snipe, and in the spring. In fact, I 
have never known them abundant on the meadows until after 
two or three days cold heavy rain, and to there having been no 
such storm this present year, I attribute, in a great measure, 
the extreme scarcity of Snipe. 
It is a little singular, however, that, while these birds prefer 
thick and hazy weather, they almost always choose moonlight 
nights, and fly most when the moon is near the full. When 
