WOODCOCK. 597 



saw eggs in 1903), near Ripon, and other suitable parts of West 

 Yorkshire. In the North Riding it breeds with greater 

 regularity and frequency than is generally supposed to be the 

 case ; the late J. Carter of Masham has known of six nests 

 in one season in Lower Wensleydale ; it is probably of annual 

 occurrence near York, in Swaledale, and near Sedbergh ; 

 on the southern slopes of the Hambleton Hills several pairs 

 breed near Sessay and Coxwold, also near Helmsley, in Rye- 

 dale, and in Bilsdale, where I saw three old birds in June 

 1883. In the Cleveland area it nests regularly in the woods 

 of Wilton, Arncliffe, Swainby, Ingleby, and Kildale, as well as 

 lower down the Esk Valley, and in the Mulgrave and Crinkle 

 woods near the coast. 



In East Yorkshire the nest has been occasionally known 

 on the Wolds, and in 1875 one was found at Knapton. The 

 home-bred birds leave their nesting quarters as winter ap- 

 proaches, and, presumably, migrate further southward.* 



This sporting bird is, however, best known as an autumn 

 and winter immigrant, coming, as a rule, in two great flights. 

 Its arrival on the coast can be predicted with great certainty, 

 viz. : during the first N.E., E. or S.E. wind after or about the 

 middle of October ; if no such wind occurs there is not a great 

 arrival of 'Cock in that month, but if the period of full moon 

 synchronizes with the other favourable conditions the flight 

 is more pronounced ; a supplementary flight takes place in 

 November, and very often a small one in September, on the 

 i6th of which month, in 1890, I saw a single bird fly up the 

 sands at Redcar. The earliest arrivals I am aware of were 

 in the last week of August 1883, when one was shot on the 

 sand-hills and two or three others were seen near the Tees 

 Breakwater. The numbers vary greatly in different years, 

 depending mainly on the force and direction of the wind 

 and the state of the weather. On dark and foggy nights 



* Marked birds bred in Alnwick Park, Northumberland, have been 

 shot in places as widely apart as the south-west of England, mid-Scotland 

 and Ireland, whilst some have been killed near the nesting localities, 

 showing that the young do not always follow the usual rule in migration, 

 (ci. Field, 23rd April 1904.) 



