246 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



p. 1 90). What I now have to record is merely confirmatory evidence. 

 On the estates of Touch and Upper Polmaise, Stirlingshire, the 

 keepers say that never in their experiences have they known of so 

 many Woodcocks nesting in the covers as in the middle of May 

 1904. When searching for wild Pheasants' eggs, it was no un- 

 common thing to find from ten to twenty Woodcocks' nests with eggs 

 in one day, and often Woodcocks' eggs were found laid in Pheasants' 

 nests ! These layings were nearly one month late of hatching off, 

 i.e., instead of hatching off by the 2oth-25th April, eggs were 

 found unhatched as late as the i5th May. And, where the usual 

 favourite covers were so congested, the flat mosses grouse-ground 

 in the lower open " kerse-lands " showed up many young birds. 

 The keepers believe that, " If these coverts were shot now (say 

 8th August, 1904) 50 couple might be killed in a day." As we 

 know the same thing happened in May 1902. Woodcocks were 

 " crushed down " and Snipe also. That was in my opinion clearly 

 to be accounted for, by the destruction of first layings of eggs (or 

 young ?) further north in Scotland. That destruction was brought 

 about by one nighfs severe frost (17 degrees) on the 3rd May 1902. 

 The Snipes' young in the open and exposed situations were all 

 killed, but the Woodcocks had their nests and eggs better 

 sheltered from the north-east winds which succeeded that awful 

 night's frost, and the eggs were successfully hatched and the young 

 reared. I repeat these facts for comparison with what took place 

 this year, 1904. 



The same things happened in May 1904; but with this 

 difference that there was no severe frost to decimate the young 

 Snipe, though the north-east winds howled, and snow blizzards 

 were frequent from the 5th May 1904 onward to the close of the 

 month, throughout the northern counties of Scotland. 



I will only add, that I believe that abnormal seasons and 

 circumstances, reversing the usual order of things either locally or 

 more generally, teach the field observer many times more than a 

 long series of normal conditions can do. And, if meteorologists 

 could combine with their normal series of observations the parallel 

 phenomena which accompany the changes, a better appreciation of 

 nature might be attained to. J. A. HARVIE-BROWN. 



Woodcock and Snipe in Dumfriesshire. Woodcocks (Scolopax 

 rusticula) now nest here regularly. I remember ten years ago shoot- 

 ing a Woodcock on the i2th August, and it was thought a great 

 curiosity. Last year I was told that while driving Grouse in 

 Kirkcudbright one or two Woodcocks had been shot. This year 

 while out shooting no less than thirteen different Woodcocks have 

 been seen between i2th and 22nd August; of these twelve were 

 shot. These twelve included both young and old birds, and would 

 seem to prove that in this part of Dumfriesshire the Woodcock is 



