arresting tHeir flight beyond ' the . western shores of our
islands, and possibly their' instinct tells them that Pthe ’ deep
.blue waters of "the Atlantic are of far wider extent than
•the paler: waves of the. North Sea and the Irish Channel.
Whatever be the- reason,, it is undoubtedly a.'fact that Woodcocks
often mate their appearance oh thé south’ and west
coasts 'of Ireland before they are noticed in the- north and
east. " ,..
k) The";ab.undahce .or.;scarcity of the annual arrivals of Woodcocks
depend very much upon the severity of the weather in
the north: of Europe. In 1852: an cunusual number:were
shbt at Melton. Constable,: near Holt, in Norfolk, thirty ‘and
thirty7thr.ee being respectively billed on two successive' days
in the first week in December, and ninety-three bn the. foll'ow-
ihg day. by the same , shooting party, who might, if other game
had been disregarded, have killed' at.least 1 1 0 "(A. ,Newton,
Zool. 7 p. 8754); : In. this: case it] seems probable! that ;the
abundance was local;; and due ‘to thé inundations- of that "year,
which..had expelled the hirds..from.the low grounds; d Severe
: frost in England has the effect „of .driving'the birds from the
.east to. the milder coasts "of", the west,” and .to Ireland, which
,has always-beeniefeWbrated for. its feock-shooting. : Daniel, Jn
dÛP Rural Sports,? has stated: thahin 'that island .the „(late)
fEarhof ’Clermont’shotififty couplé* in’cme day.; and:hisi5suc-
I^ssor: informs.th^’Editer thatlthis feat-was the.’ resulLdf. â
wager.; It took, place at-the'Earl ; of Farnhàm’s seat in
üjöavan ; the entire bag being’ made in - a largeiIweéd^ieaTlëd
^Bbrïâwealë, and before„two. o’clock in’ the afternoon,;with !a
-singlë-bàrrelléd flint-gun . Of all years~.within ; the memory
of, man’in Ireland, none, however; equals the'winter „of 1881,
when; „according to Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, the; peasants
bagge’d their .fifteen and twêxèy-.cónple a day, an’d wouldüave
killed many more but !fo’r runningeshoH/oj^ammumtian;; : In
Clare one; dealer alone, " although.;he’ had two rivalsninAthe
..trade,; forwarded to. Bublin and .London a thousand Cock
a week for three weeks ; and the-books of the principal firm
.of 3?ralee show that in January and February 1,641 " were
received from Kerry.- -Oneshoate^vnear- Kilcredan, cojapty
Clare; killed thirty couplé in-a day"; and on Lord Ardilapn s
property-at Ashford, county Galway, 178 Cock fell to six
guns in two days.*! ; £ n : : ' i ■ • : fl ! ' ' s
A Woodcock when flushed" on thé coast has been known to
settle on "the sëa-, and when again disturbed, r’ose without
difficulty and; flew away,. But -this is- not always :thè
jcase. Mr, Falconer, of Christchurch, has recorded: (Zool,
1848," p . -2028),' ‘-that some years, ago, a tew ; miles from
the" Land’s End,--the pea was. strewed; with - hundreds of
Woodcocks : i t ’is probable"that.they.Were exhausted by! their
lopg flight, and hundreds^seem 'tö have fallen together:into
the sea; some p i them Were taken up, Tand. found tp be
(pesfeetly -fresh.” ; Numerous \ instances.' are recorded \ of
■Woodeoeks, alighting ron the deck. of. ships in the English
Channel-and;elsewhere*' The rapidity of flight of this.bird
is,-at ;times ;so„ great that a pane of platé-glaSs' moré "than
-three-eighths of an inch thick has been smashed by .the
.contact, and one. was; actually impaled on the weathercbck of
jolie o.f* thé chntohcs -in Ipswich ('ZooL ss. p, 271).
. jT-The return migration "takes place d’n „March, at which
isèason-the'bi-rds, although generally paired, were formerly; shot
-inthis country^ until'pr.QtegtedIby lam
^ipnth'o .Owing Jgjgpj increase; of plantations, especially M
coders, in the vicinity of cultivated ground, the numbby Ot
birds;which noWremam.tp breed very, largely’exceeds that of
cfermer^eaRS,-when every.ÿu©b^©f*a Woodcock was a novelty
^beieiordcd.K-Those .counties; which possess : large and
.undisturbed woodsj.arq naturaÙy 'among the "most favoured,
but.efen'Middlesex-must; not,be omitted .-from the list, for
-.thé, nqst has'heenlfpund. in Caen Wood ; .whilst on the Surrey
.-side nfrthe ;rivêir#t.hàs been .noticed so near'-to the metropolis
;as- Streatham, In the'eastern d iv is io n ^ Sussex,’ according
l|o’]dr. T. Monk, of Leynp, whose carefully collected Statistics
, ggerë,published;in’ |S |F i e ld / :2 5 th ' February, 1871, there
.were annually, on an average; from! 50; tb 2 0 0~nests-a year.
Its distribution throughout; the breeding-: season is tolerably
genierad in Scotland, „especially in the more wooded districts,
* ‘ The ï'öwlef in Ireland/-pp. '^W-^SO.' * 4