248 WiivD Birds and their Haunts 



Cotes du Nord, in November, 1907. This bird was 

 marked in 1905, and its identity was proved beyond a 

 doubt, the ring round its leg being sent home by the 

 Vicornte de Foulavoir, who vouched for the accuracy of 

 the particulars given. It may safely be concluded from 

 this last instance, that home-bred woodcock are, on 

 occasion, as much given to wandering as any of the birds 

 that pay a visit to Great Britain in the autumn, and it is 

 likely that for one woodcock killed and identified there 

 are a dozen others that either escape altogether or are 

 not reported. 



So far as they go, the Alnwick experiments are in- 

 tensely interesting, but one must be careful not to draw 

 hasty, and possibly incorrect, conclusions from them. 

 They may mean a great deal, or, upon the other hand, 

 tney may «not be so conclusive as they seem. And this 

 is because, owing to the nature of the marking, the 

 endeavour cannot be regarded as quite complete. The 

 birds are marked w*th a soft metal ring, upon which 

 is simply stamped the initial " N " followed by the year 

 of marking. Now, to the stranger, and especially to 

 the foreigner, these marks are not very intelligible, and 

 it is more than likely that out of every dozen woodcock 

 thus marked that might be discovered by gunners in 

 various parts of this or any other country, not three 

 would be reported to the proper quarter. Some of those 

 who shoot birds with these mysterious markings might not 

 deem it worth while to take the trouble to report ; others, 

 like the friend of the Shooting Times correspondent 

 referred to, would have no notion what the marks might 

 mean, while it is at least conceivable that a proportion 

 of these marked birds that find their way into somebody's 

 bag are not even noticed. A case of the latter kind 

 was reported not long ago, the writer stating that it 

 was not until the bag was spread out for admiration at 

 the end of the day that someone noticed one of the 

 woodcock had a ring round its leg. 



It is only to be expected that the larger number of 

 woodcock marked on any estate are likely to be killed at 

 or near home, and this has proved to be the case in the 



