PREFACE. FOR the fifth time, like the annual Woodcock, I make my autumnal appearance; and, according to his habit, am to be found in the same haunt as the year before, frequenting leaves, and wood, and covers. Since the last season I have taken many flights, far and near, and with all my little power of suction have plied my bill around the springs of the Humorous and the Comic, which are, in the words of Bewick, "oozing rills that are rarely frozen." In such plashy nooks the woodcock is |