NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 175 



proportions took place later. During a storm in December, 1878. 

 " nearly 500 Woodcock were killed along the shore between Lossie- 

 mouth and Burghhead [in Elgin], on the shore of the Moray Firth 

 — supposed to have come from the opposite side of the Firth, if 

 not from the still further north" [Rev. Geo. Gordon, Birnie, in 

 lit., 24th January, 1879]. Woodcock "of late" had left Suther- 

 land [Tongue District, J. C., in lit., loth January]. In three days 

 Angus MacLean, gamekeeper to Mr. W. S. Parker, lessee of the 

 Soval shootings, Lewis, bagged to his own gun 51 Woodcock. 

 MacLean walked on the first day 14 miles on snow 2 feet deep 

 before he fired his first shot. Woodcock are reported also as 

 unusually abundant in Norfolk at the beginning of the storm 

 [H. Stevenson, in lit']. Other accounts of numbers of Woodcock 

 killed will be found in Inverness Courier of February 1st. In 

 Ireland, between December 12th and February 18th, on a shooting 

 in the S.W., one gun killed 290 Woodcock [Field, 1st March, 

 1879]. SO Woodcock were shot in three days in the Boss of Mull 

 [J. H., in lit.]. At Taycreggan, on Loch Awe, which did not freeze 

 over, 67 Woodcock were shot in one small wood, from time to 

 time, by one gun [ex ore]. This was in the beginning of January. 

 About 30 couple were shot in two days on Tyree. 



Woodcock were starved and found dead and dying in Ardna- 

 murchan, numbers being picked up, and others caught alive by dogs 

 [J. J. Dalgleish, ex ore]. Woodcock suffered also in Aberdeen- 

 shire, Mr. Geo. Sim having found some reduced almost to 

 skeletons. 



Though abundant on the coast of Elgin and Banff, inland 

 localities were almost destitute of Woodcock, and the same remark 

 applies to almost all inland localities in Scotland. In Eig, as I 

 am informed by Mr. J. J. Dalgleish, who visited the island this 

 summer, and took notes, as many as 17 and 18 were killed in a 

 day, in the winter of 1878-79. Mr. B. Service reports Woodcock 

 as unusually plentiful in the breeding season of 1879, on the 

 estate of Mabie, Dumfriesshire. This appears like a crowding 

 down of the species on our latitudes. 



Their unusual scarcity on migration during the autumn of 1879 

 is reported to me by the light-keeper at Little Boss Lighthouse, 

 in the Solway Firth. My correspondent writes — " The Woodcock, 

 also, used to be common here, but I saw none this year." 



Larger numbers than usual are reported as remaining to breed 



