LUCKY SHOTS ' 279 



shooting on the edge of the same wood, and 

 flushed a woodcock out of the fern, which I also 

 secured, thus fully breaking the tradition. I have 

 never been able to understand why the said 

 covert was avoided by woodcock so persistently, 

 for it has all the requisites which might be sup- 

 posed to attract these birds. Two years running 

 a friend of mine killed a brace of woodcock * right 

 and left ' in the same spot in a covert in Hamp- 

 shire. I am well acquainted with the place, and 

 have often shot the covert in company with my 

 friend. Of course there is a reason for the marked 

 predilection of woodcock for certain coverts and 

 certain spots in them, that reason being probably 

 due to the supply of food and water being more 

 to their liking. Again, although the supply of 

 food in one place may be equally plentiful as in 

 another, and the water apparently the same, the 

 springs may be brackish or hard. 



The members of the plover family which are 

 included in the list of British birds are no fewer 

 than fifteen in number, viz. : 



1. The stone curlew. 



2. The cream-coloured courser. 



3. The golden plover. 



4. The Asiatic plover. 



5. The gray plover. 



6. The dotterel. 



7. The ringed plover. 



8. The little ringed plover. 



9. The Caspian plover. 



