Fall.—Mr. Slater (1898), writing of the fall migration in Great Britain, says:
Though many breed with us, there is a large migration from the North in the late autumn. If the moon is full about the end of October, they appear to come in a big "rush" then, but sometimes in driblets as early as the end of September, as late as mid-November. But their movements are largely influenced by the wind and atmosphere as well as the moon; if the weather is foggy or they are exhausted by a heavy contrary wind, they drop on the coast as soon as they touch it, and large bags are sometimes made on the sand hills by those on the lookout for them. If the wind is light and weather clear, they seem to pass inland at once to favorite and suitable covers. Should frost come—which drives the worms down, and also prevents the birds from probing—cock move south and west. Therefore, it is in our southwest counties, Wales and West Ireland, where, owing to the Gulf stream frost and cold are seldom severe, that the best woodcock shooting is to be had, after the seasonal migration is over. Though they travel as a rule at night, and chiefly at the time of the full moon, this is not invariably the case; on October 28, 1881, I saw a woodcock come straight in from the sea, 20 yards high, and pitch on a bare patch of shingle; this was shortly before midday, and I thought it such an unusual circumstance that I skinned the bird for my collection.
Winter.—The woodcock is a winter resident as well as a migrant in Great Britain. Dresser (1871) writes:
Their numbers are, of course, greatly augmented in the winter, large numbers of immigrants being added to those which breed (as after mentioned); indeed I am not sure whether all of those we have in winter are immigrants, and that those which breed with us move further south in pursuance of their migratory instinct; but this is a point very difficult to discover. In the district I now allude to, their numbers are much diminished on the appearance of severe, frosty weather, when they appear to go to the coast, where they find the feeding grounds more open; if, however, the frost be slight, they remain.
On the west coast of Argyllshire they are found in greater numbers, and are not so much confined to covers, being found in open weather scattered through all the sheltered glens where there is any brushwood or even bracken. On the occurrence of frost, however, they all gather to the low-lying covers near the sea, where its influence serves to keep open the springs; and in such weather very large bags are often made, as they seem to come not only from the outlying spots above mentioned, but from the inland districts, where the frost has sealed up every one of their usual haunts.
DISTRIBUTION
Breeding range.—Northern Europe and Asia. North in Scandinavia to latitude 67°, in Lapland and Finland, in western Russia to 65°, and in eastern Russia to 64°. East to the Sea of Okhotsk. West to the British Isles. South to the Azores, Canaries, and Madeira (where it is resident), the Pyrenees, Alps, Transylvania, Carpathians, Himalayas (up to 10,000 feet), Mongolia, and Japan.
Winter range.—Great Britain, the Mediterranean basin, northern Africa and southern Asia, Persia, India, Burma, China, Japan, and occasionally Ceylon.
Casual records.—Casual in the Faeroes, Spitsbergen, Greenland, and North America. Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1912) says:
It wanders occasionally to eastern North America, and has occurred in Loudoun County, Va., in 1873 (Coues); Chester County, Pa., the end of November, 1886 (Stone); one was taken near Shrewsbury, N. J., December 6, 1859 (Lawrence); one, September, 1889, somewhere in New Jersey (Warren); one, probably of this species, near Newport, R. I. (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway); one at Chambly, Quebec, November 11, 1882 (Wintle); and one at St. John, Newfoundland, January 9, 1862 (Sclater).