CHARADRIID/E. 



569 



1^1 ^^ \^> ' /f 



)KU*^-i/'' 



THE WOODCOCK. 



ScoLOPAX RUSTicuLA, Linnreus. 



The annual ' flights ' of this well-known species usually begin 

 in October, and a return migration northwards is noticed early in 

 March, when the birds which intend to breed in our islands betake 

 themselves to suitable coverts. Of late years, owing to the increase 

 of plantations in the vicinity of feeding-grounds, the number of 

 the individuals which remain has been greatly augmented ; and 

 nests have been found in most parts of England, Wales, Scotland 

 and Ireland, except on some of the barest islands. Early in autumn 

 the home-bred birds disappear from their haunts, few, if any, being 

 seen until the October influx, and they are popularly supposed to 

 have left the country ; but their disappearance is partially attribut- 

 able to self-effacement during the moult, for many birds which had 

 been captured and marked with metal rings in the spring in 

 Northumberland, have been shot in the same county in autumn. 

 Migration takes place by night, when casualties against the lanterns 

 of lighthouses and vessels are not infrequent. Birds have often 

 been known to alight when the wind was from a quarter directly 

 opposed to the direction whence they might be expected ; but this 

 was probably due to the existence of a different current of air in the 

 more elevated strata through which they had been passing. 



