144 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



many Grouse lost their early (April) layings ; and in a 

 particular well-heathered hollow many Grouse were put up 

 singly and in pairs, where they had evidently taken shelter. 

 They were sprung without tJie aid of dogs a sign easily read 

 by experienced people that things were abnormal, and not as 

 they should be. It is patent to the most ordinary practical 

 observers that phenomenal results have taken place due to the 

 unseasonable severity of our spring of 1908. Even the 

 most superficial observers, and those whose opportunities of 

 outdoor field observation are not as good as they were 

 formerly like my own, cannot escape coming to the 

 conclusion and expressing it with many variations something 

 like this : " This season is very late ; everything is struggling 

 for life " ; and notes having equal significance are referred to 

 generally by others (vide "Zoologist," May 15, 1908, p. 192, 

 by Mr. Julian G. Tuck for an example). 



I think field observers may have noticed that Woodcocks 

 frequent woods most abundantly, both in autumn and in the 

 nesting season, which have something of north in their 

 exposure and our best covers in Central Scotland have 

 N.E. exposures, to which rule, however, there are excep- 

 tions due to other favouring circumstances, such as age and 

 kind of cover growth. But it has been observed also that it 

 has been only in exceptionally cold N.E. blizzards and snow 

 and frost storms occurring late in April and May, and con- 

 tinuing cold and ungenial far into the season, that Woodcocks 

 have been unusually abundant and nesting on exposures 

 facing the south and south-west. Whilst such covers may 

 hold a regular number of nests in normal seasons, these 

 same covers will be (have been !) found to hold four or five 

 times as many nesting pairs in abnormally cold seasons, 

 such as 1902, 1905, and in the present spring of 1908. 

 This has been clearly and unmistakably the case, and fully- 

 ascertained to be so over a considerable tract of Central 

 Scotland. 



Such records and relations of facts may not be considered 

 of much value or usefulness by superficial observers. That 

 is, however, no reason why they should not be placed on 

 record provided they have been carefully and accurately 

 ascertained, and always allowing that sufficient care has 



