siderable depth on the opposite side of the track, and nearer to the tall upright wand. To the top of the latter a string was now fastened, the end of which was formed into a large running noose; while, about half way down, another piece of stick, about six inches long, was tied by its middle. The flexible wand was then bent forcibly downwards, one end of the little stick overhead was passed under the arch, while it was retained in this position, and at the same time the bow prevented from springing upwards, by the other extremity being placed against a notch at the end of the stick which had been fastened to the peg on the other side of the run, across which it now lay, two or three inches from the ground, and supported the noose. This, in fact, constituted the trigger, which was to be released when struck by the breast of the woodcock. The old man constructed his trap in much less time than I have taken to describe it. His last care was to weave the sedges on either side of the run into a kind of screen, so as to weir the woodcock into the snare, and this he accomplished with much skill and expedition.”

"We have caught the woodcock."

All's Well, Act iv. Sc. I.

Another method of taking this bird was with a steel

trap called "a gin:"

Now is the woodcock near the gin."

Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 5.

This trap, being commonly used now-a-days for rats, is probably too well known to need a description here.

"So strives the woodcock with the gin."

Henry VI. Part III. Act i. Sc. 4.

Under the head of "Wild-Fowl" we shall have occasion, in a subsequent chapter, to allude to the opinion of Pythagoras on the transmigration of souls, and to the discussion on this subject in Twelfth Night, when the clown portentously observes to Malvolio,

"Fear to kill a woodcock, lest thou dispossess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well.”—Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 2.

The "woodcock's head" in Shakespeare's day, on account of its shape, was a fashionable term for a tobacco-pipe.* "Those who loved smoking sat on the stage-stools, with their three sorts of tobacco, and their lights by them, handing matches on the point of their swords, or sending out their pages for real Trinidado. They actually practised smoking under professors who taught them tricks; and the intelligence offices were not more frequented, no, nor the pretty seamstresses' shops at the Exchange, than the new tobacco office."+

It is somewhat remarkable that while Shakespeare's contemporary, Ben Jonson, has founded whole scenes upon

*Every Man Out of his Humour, Act iii. Sc. 3.

†Thornbury, "Shakespeare's England," vol. i. pp. 169, 170.

the practice of smoking, he himself has made no mention of it. Some commentators have brought this forward as a proof of the comparative earliness of many of his dramas, but smoking was in general use long before Shakespeare left London, and he drew his manners almost entirely from his own age, making mention of masks, false hair, pomanders, and fardingales, all of which were introduced about the same time. But apropos of "the woodcock's head," we are wandering away from Shakespeare's birds.

The Snipe (Scolopax gallinago) has been less frequently noticed by him than the woodcock. Indeed we have been unable to find more than one passage in which it is mentioned.

Iago, alluding to Roderigo, says :—

"For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,

If I would time expend with such a snipe,

But for my sport and profit."

Othello, Act i. Sc. 3.

The speaker being evidently of opinion that a snipe was too insignificant a bird to the sportsman to warrant his taking much trouble to kill it, except for mere sport.

That there was a good deal more "sport" than "profit " is extremely likely; for it is difficult to believe that the sportsmen of Shakespeare's day, with guns such as we have described, fired with either fuze or flint, could have successfully stopped the erratic flight of a snipe. That

H H

large numbers of snipe were brought to market, and appeared at table, in Shakespeare's time, is clear from the numerous entries in the old "Household Book," where their value is stated to have been "after iii a jd." There can be little doubt, however, that these were not shot birds," but were taken in snares and nets, as our modern fowlers take plovers and other fen birds.

To the general reader these terms may appear synonymous, but to the sportsman and naturalist they have a very different signification. Under the head of "wild-fowl" may be placed the various species of wild geese, swans, and ducks, which, though often found at sea, evince a partiality for fresh water, rear their young in the neighbourhood of fresh water, and, as an article of food, are especially sought after by the amateur for sport, and by the professional gunner for profit; while the group of "sea-fowl" may be said to include the gulls, terns, guillemots, auks, cormorants, and various other birds, which, making the sea their home, rear their young upon its shelving beach or frowning cliffs, and, except on an emergency, are seldom cooked and eaten.

Shakespeare has given us a peep at both. At one time

we see

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Strange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds."

Cymbeline, Act i. Sc. 4;