194 RETURN OF BIRDS TO SAME HAUNTS. [PART II. 



which had brought them into the neighbourhood 

 apparently ceased to exist, for from that time he 

 had never seen a single individual of the species. 

 Those which I have mentioned as making their 

 appearance in 1856 are the only specimens that 

 I remember ever to have heard of in the Island 

 since he told me this some fifteen or eighteen 

 years ago. 



The instinct which led the Buzzards (in the 

 instance I have mentioned) to seek out a particular 

 tree as peculiarly apt for the purposes of building, 

 is certainly very remarkable, but it is perhaps 

 scarcely more so than that which induces some 

 most indeed, I believe I may say of our migra- 

 tory birds to return to (or rather haunt) the same 

 localities year after year in almost precisely the 

 same numbers. I may instance Woodcocks, and 

 shall, I am sure, be borne out in my assertion by 

 the experience of all sportsmen who have oppor- 

 tunities for forming an opinion, when I say that 

 not only the same coverts, but the same parts of 

 those coverts, will almost invariably be found at 

 the same season to produce very nearly the same 

 number, it being perfectly immaterial whether the 

 whole of the contingent furnished by it the pre- 

 ceding year had been killed off or not. 



