WOODCOCK.—This is a bird of passage, with a simply variegated plumage, having a long bill, peculiarly appropriated to the purposes of insertion and suction, from which its subsistence is principally derived: it is rather inferior in size to the partridge, varying in weight, according to the condition it may be in, and the season in which it is killed, being rarely less than eight, or more than eleven ounces in the scale. They arrive in this country some time in the month of October; but whether early or late, depends entirely upon the prevalence of the winds by which they are brought over. The east and north-easterly winds (particularly when accompanied by fogs) are the most favourable for their arrival: reaching our shores fatigued with flight, they drop under any tree, shrub, or bush, bearing the appearance of covert: after rest and refreshment, they in longer flights disperse themselves in the different woods, copses, shaws, and hedge-rows, in various parts of the country, selecting chiefly such parts as seem best calculated for the singularity of their accommodation. They are by no means remarkable for remaining long in one place, or even in the same neighbourhood; on the contrary, they never continue more than ten or twelve days in any particular spot, though favourably adapted to their reception. The woodcock is a very clumsy waddling walker, as is the case with every kind of fowl having short legs and long wings: when flushed, he rises heavily from the ground, and makes a considerable noise before he can gather wind sufficient for flight. If found in a rushy spot, a ditch, or a hedge-row, from whence he is obliged to present an _open_ mark, he frequently slowly skims over the ground, and is very easily shot; as, indeed, is the case elsewhere, provided any obstruction does not arise from intervening branches of trees, and boughs of underwood, which, in cock and covert shooting, must always be expected. After a plentiful arrival, they afford excellent sport, and may be found as well with pointers as with spaniels, (the pointers being hunted in the covert with bells:) but cock shooting, with spaniels is almost universally preferred, as it is more enlivening and exhilarating to _hear_ the spaniels occasionally in _quest_, rather than pursue so pleasing a scene with the solemnity of a general silence.