7 
42 THE NATURAL HISFORY 
lower fituations at the approach of winter; q 
leaft that is the cafe in France. They pate the 
fummer om the Alps, or the Pyreneean Moun, 
tains, and towards the end of the year they 
fcend to the plains. 
They generally. come in the night, fometing 
in a mifty day, one by one, or two together, by 
never in flocks. ‘They alight in thick hedges, j 
copfes, and in woods; they prefer woods whe 
there is a quantity of loofe foil and of fallen leaves, 
there they retire, and are fo ftill and concealed 
day, that they can only be roufed by dogs, | 
frequently they rife almoft under the feet of 
fowler. . : 
In the evening they leave thefe places over 
grown with wood, in order to go into the glad 
They follow the paths and feek for foft grou 
and for the moift meadows on the borders of 
. wood, and little fplafhes or puddles of water: t 
go there to wafh their beaks, and their feet whi 
are clotted with earth, in their fearch for worms, 
The Woodcock flaps its wings with fome noi 
when it rifes. It flies very ftraight in a woad of 
trees, but in a copfe it is often obliged to wi 
It often drops behind bufhes, in order to co 
ceal itfelf from the eye of the fowler: b 
though its flight be quick, it is neither high no 
long 

