288 The Scottish Natiwalist. 



the name of the Woodcock Pilot, is now well known to be resi- 

 dent in this country, rearing two, if not three, broods a-year. 

 Though long supposed to be a winter migrant only, it receives 

 large accessions every year from the north, perhaps replacing those 

 that may have moved farther south or west as the case may be, 

 though not actually leaving Great Britain, but only performing a 

 partial or local migration, — many possibly being even sedentary 

 in some parts of the country, and never quitting their native 

 woods ; but whether these seeming residents are really so or not 

 it would be difficult to prove without some distinguishing mark. 

 Sir Thomas Moncreiffe, a keen observer in all matters of natural 

 history, assures me that the woods on Moncreiffe Hill are never, 

 at any time of the year, without Woodcock ; that numbers are 

 bred there annually \ and that it is his firm belief they never leave 

 them. 



I have never heard it explained how the western parts of the 

 country are so proverbially the home of the Woodcock, while in 

 the eastern parts they are comparatively few. I can quite under- 

 stand the attraction to the west, as a milder and more genial 

 climate ; but from whence come these large flights of western 

 Woodcocks? Do they reach the eastern coast first, and then 

 cross overland from thence? or do they strike the northern 

 parts of Scotland, and then spread down the western shore, and 

 so reach the north of Ireland ? I think not ; as I have never 

 been able to trace them in any great numbers in this direction. 

 The direct line of migration seems to me to be naturally the 

 eastern coast ; and Mr Cordeaux confirms this when he says that, 

 with the prevailing winds off the land from south to west, it is 

 never a great Woodcock season on the east coast ; but strong 

 winds blowing anywhere from the opposite quarters — south-east 

 to north-west — and especially if accompanied with thick foggy 

 or drizzly weather — and the stronger the wind and wilder the 

 weather, the greater number of birds, as a rule, may be found — 

 and that the probability is that, with the prevailing winds from 

 south to west, which are then never good Woodcock seasons on 

 the east coast, that they do not alight, but pass over in the 

 night, and are first heard of in the west of England or Ireland 

 (of course the same stands good for the west of Scodand) ; and 

 this I quite agree in believing to be the true line of flight — re- 

 turning to the east coast, according to Mr Cordeaux, about the 

 first week in March. 



But, perliaps, of all our accessory migrants, none concerns us 



