Legend of the time: these migratory birds, which hunters value the most, arrive in dark weather, most often at night; they swoop down in thickets or high forests, and prefer woods where there is plenty of damp earth and dead leaves; they are so well hidden there that dogs are needed to flush them out. They leave these thickets at nightfall to spread out into the clearings following the paths. It is there that they are easily caught in snares. In brittany, they are hunted in a singular way. Two men get together to lie in ambush in the pastures of the forest, where, under the cow dung, the woodcocks find a large harvest of worms. One carries a lantern and a sort of thorn attached to the end of a long handle; the other one of those bells that are attached to the necks of cows. The birds thus allow themselves to be approached close enough to ensnare them in the meshes of a net (see fig. 3). (. . . ) the woodcock is, as belon says, "a very large beast (1)," if it allows itself to be caught in the way he describes and which he calls frolic. "a man covered with a cape the color of dry leaves, walking bent over on two short crutches, approaches slowly, stopping when the woodcock stares at him, continuing to walk when it begins to wander again until he sees it stop with its head down; then, gently striking its two sticks against each other, the woodcock will have fun and panic so much that the hunter will approach it close enough to put a noose around its neck. "the flesh of the woodcock, including the excrement, is a delicacy for those who love it. It is the case to recall the latin proverb: degustibus. Non est disputandum. 1: belon, history of the nature of birds, p. S7s /paris, 1355, in-fol. ).
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