4 THE NATURAL HISTORY 
lower fituations at the approach of winter; at 
Jeaft that is the cafe in France. They pafs the 
fummer on the Alps, or the Pyreneean Moun- 
tains, and towards the end of the year they de= 
fcend to the plains. 
They generally come in the night, fometimes — 
ina mifty day, one by’one, or two together, but 
-never in flocks, They alight in thick hedges, in 
copfes, and in woods; they prefer woods where 
there is a quantity of loofe foil and of fallen leaves ; 
there they retire, and are fo ftill and concealed all 
day, that they can only be roufed by dogs, and 
frequently they rife almoft under the feet of the. 
fowler. | a. 
In the evening they coe thefe places over= 
grown with wood, in order to go into the glades. 
They follow the paths and feek for foft ground, 
and for the moift meadows on the borders of the 
wood, and little fplafhes or puddles of water: they 
go there to wafh their beaks, and their feet which 
are clotted with earth, in their fearch for worms. _ 
The Woodcock flaps its wings with fome noife 
when it rifes. It flies very ftraight in a wood of tall 
trees, but in a copfe it is often obliged to wind. 
Tt often drops behind bufhes, in order to con- 
ceal itfelf from the eye of the fowler: but , 
thought its — be quits it is neither high nor _ 
dong, | 
