222 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



additional and secure retreats, as well as an abund- 

 ant and constant supply of food ? J The late Sir 

 William Jardine attributed the circumstance to the 

 increased attention paid to Ornithology, and to such 

 facts being recorded ; he could not perceive any 

 change in the country to induce the birds to remain 

 more frequently than heretofore. 2 Another reason 

 may be found in the circumstance that now many 

 owners and lessees of manors do not allow their 

 coverts to be disturbed in the spring, and give 

 orders to their keepers to spare the Woodcocks 

 after a certain date. 



Mr. T. Monk, of Lewes, some years since, was 

 at considerable pains to obtain statistics as to the 

 number of Woodcocks remaining to breed in the 

 eastern division of Sussex ; and, extraordinary 

 as it may appear, the conclusion he arrived 

 at was to the effect that in seven districts of 

 East Sussex, comprising twenty -one parishes, 

 there were annually, on an average, from one 

 hundred and fifty to two hundred nests of this bird. 3 



1 Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. p. 201. 



2 British Birds, vol. iii. p. 171 (Naturalist's Library). 



3 The statistics here referred to were published in The Field of 

 25th February 1871. 



