2o8 The hish Nahiralist. November, 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE MOVEMENTS OF 
WOODCOCK. 
BY PHILIP D. PERCEVAL. 
I started marking Woodcock here for my own information 
only, as both my keeper (who has had a hfelong experience 
amongst Woodcock) and myself had come to the conclusion 
that we are now mainly dependent for our stock during 
the shooting season on the birds that are bred here ; it is 
seldom of late years that a migration of foreign birds can 
be noticed as they used to be in former times. While 
referring to this particular neighbourhood only and to 
what has come under my own observation, I am of opinion 
that the flights of foreign birds are of late years inclined 
to remain more in England and the eastern counties of 
Ireland than used to be the case, and that here in the west 
our home-bred birds are principally to be relied on for 
our stock of birds during the shooting season. 
I first entertained the idea of putting rings on young 
Woodcock in igo8, in order to try to get some idea as to 
whether we got any, and if so, how many, relatively, of 
the birds that were bred in the place. The rings that I 
got that year were* not satisfactory, as they had a tag on 
them that would be likely to get caught up in grass, (^c, 
and probably lead to the destruction of the young birds to 
whose leg they were attached. For this reason, we did 
not use any of these, and in the following year (1909), I 
got rings of another make which were not very satisfactory 
either, but by cutting them down and fihng them, we some- 
what improved them, and were able to mark 16 young 
Woodcock. The following winter seven of the marked birds 
were shot, all except one being got here, and that one was 
got within a couple of miles from where it was ringed. 
The following year (1910) I succeeded in getting a satis- 
factory ring, but we were unlucky in dropping on but few 
young birds, though there were plenty about, and only a 
dozen had rings put on. Of these, four were shot the 
following winter, as well as two ringed birds of the year 
before (1909). 
