Upon the Sussex coast woodcocks have been seen at their first dropping, in considerable numbers in the church-yard, and even in the streets of Rye, but during the night, the usual time of their flying, they removed further inland, and dispersed. At their first coming on that coast, they are commonly poor, as if wasted by their long journey; and are sometimes scurfy, though not so much as before their return in the spring; and it is remarkable, that when the woodcock first arrives, the taste of its flesh is quite different from what it is afterwards. It is very white, short, and tender, and seems to have little or no blood in it; but after it has been in this country a considerable time, the flesh becomes more tough, stringy, and fibrous, like that of domestic fowls. If a woodcock is shot just before his departure, it bleeds plentifully, whereas, at the beginning of winter, scarcely any blood flows from the wounds, by this it seems that in those countries, where they have their summer residence, they have a different nourishment to that they here find. Probably the luxuriant and succulent food which they meet with among us, prepares them for breeding in those countries where they retire with the companions of their choice.
The woodcock feeds indiscriminately upon earth-worms, small beetles, and various kinds of larvæ, and its stomach sometimes contains seeds, which I suspect have been taken up in boring amongst the excrements of cattle; yet the stomach of this bird has something of the gizzard character, though not so much as that of the landrail, which I have found half filled with the seeds of grasses, and even containing corn, mixed with May-bugs, earth-worms, grasshoppers, and caterpillars.
The time of their appearance and disappearance in Sweden coincides exactly with that of their arrival in, and return from, Great Britain. Their autumnal and vernal appearances on the coast of Suffolk have been accurately noticed, they come over sparingly in the first week in October, the greater numbers not arriving until November and December, and always after sun-set. It is the wind and not the moon, that determines the time of their arrival, and it is probable that this should be the case, as they come hither in quest of food, which fails them in the places they leave; if the wind has favoured their flight, their stay on the coast where they drop is very short, if any, but if they had been forced to struggle with an adverse gale, such as a ship can hardly make any way with, they rest a day or two to recover their fatigue. So greatly has their strength been exhausted, that they have been taken by hand in Southwold streets; they do not come gregariously, but separate and dispersed.
In the same manner as woodcocks quit us, they retire from France, Germany, and Italy, making the northern and cold situations their universal summer rendezvous. They visit Burgundy the latter end of October, but continue there only four or five weeks; it being a dry country, they are forced away, for want of sustenance, by the first frost. In the winter they are found in vast plenty as far south as Smyrna and Aleppo; during the same season, in Barbary, where the Africans call them the ass of the partridge. It has been asserted that some have appeared as far south as Egypt, which is the remotest migration to which they can be traced on that side the Eastern world; on the other side they are very common in Japan. The woodcocks that resort into the countries of the Levant, probably come from the deserts of Siberia or Tartary, or the old mountains of Armenia.
In the neighbourhood of Athens, hares and other game are purchased for little more than the value of powder and shot. In winter woodcocks abound, descending, after snow on the mountains, into the plains; and suddenly retiring if the weather continues severe, they enter the gardens of the town in great distress, rather than cross the sea, and are sometimes caught with the hand.