144 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



for its punctual occurrence during the first ten to fourteen 

 days of March. They are not shot now as formerly ; and, 

 indeed, I am one of those who are of the opinion that the 

 well-known and vast increase, which has taken place in their 

 numbers as a nesting species all over Scotland of late years, 

 has been greatly due to this change in action by our best 

 sportsmen. 



It always seems desirable to carefully record such 

 appearances of this interesting game-bird, and let me give 

 such particulars as I can of the return of the Woodcocks in 

 the spring of the present year, 1907, as instanced by 

 information I have received from the extensive Woodcock 

 covers of Touch, near Stirling, and elsewhere. 



Mr. Simpson, head-keeper, at Touch, informs me that 

 " The Woodcocks were seen on the loth March (1907) to the 

 number of perhaps 200 to 300." On the loth snow lay on 

 the ground to a uniform depth of some 2\ inches. The keepers 

 at Touch were tracking foxes at the time the flight of Wood- 

 cocks was met with. Mr. Simpson continues, " It is about 

 eight or nine years ago that I saw anything like the above, 

 and it was, if I remember aright, in the first week in March ; 

 and they only stayed one clay, and the weather was open 

 and fine at that time. 1 Also, 1900 was a good season i.e., 

 shooting season. I saw in October, in the high wood of 

 Touch, in about twenty acres, over 100. 



"When we were shooting this year (1906), on the 4th 

 December we killed thirty-one Woodcock. They just come 

 in for a day or two, though we also have a good few all the 

 year round ; and I have seen young on the 2Oth April well 

 fledged. I got three this year in one day with only one leg 

 each. They might have been shot off, or the birds snared, 

 and the wire have cut them through, or someone might have 

 put rings on too tight when young." 



In intimate connection with the above information, I 

 may add the following: On the 5th December 1907, 

 when shooting our covers here at Dunipace, which covers 

 face the south (Touch covers face the north and east), our 

 party saw, at least, twenty birds ; and of those driven out of 



1 1895 was a year disastrous in the annals of the Woodcock population in the 

 north and west of Scotland. 



