CATALOGUi: OF BIRDS. 281 



Some years ago I was Snipe shooting in co. 

 Clare, west coast of Ireland, when the man who was 

 with me said that one year in some fields in that 

 county, close to the shores of the Atlantic, he found 

 hundreds upon hundreds of Woodcock on the furze 

 bushes, on the ground, in fact, everywhere. They 

 were so exhausted that they couldn't fly, and you 

 could catch them and knock them down with sticks. 

 These were evidently birds that, meeting with a 

 wind too strong against them, had been carried on 

 to the west coast of Ireland instead of to the east 

 coast of England. 



In regard to the birds sometimes failing to make 

 their objective point, Howard Saunders says : 

 " Birds have often been known to alight with the 

 wind in a quarter opposed to the direction whence 

 they might be expected, but this is probably due to 

 the existence of currents of air in the more elevated 

 strata through which they have been passing." He 

 also says : "That of late years, owing to the increase 

 of plantations, especially of conifers in the vicinity of 

 cultivated ground, the numbers of birds that remain 

 to breed have greatly increased, and there can be 

 no doubt that the Woodcock nests in most parts of 

 Wales, England, Ireland, and Scotland." 



I myself know of one place in Argyleshire, not far 

 from Oban, where a good many Woodcock breed 

 on a preserved estate rented by a wealthy gentle- 

 man. His keeper, who has tendered me much 

 valuable assistance in connection with my collection, 

 asked me one day whether I would like to see a 



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