THE WOODCOCK 151 



gratulation in that the numbers of the woodcocks re- 

 maining to breed in Great Britain have considerably 

 increased during late years. In all probability this 

 increase may be put down to the protection now 

 afforded by the Wild Birds' Protection Act, 1880, which 

 places an effectual barrier against their slaughter in this 

 country during March, when these birds are either 

 nesting or on their way north. Information gleaned 

 during the past few years conveys the gratifying intelli- 

 gence that there is now scarcely a county in Great 

 Britain in which at least a few pairs of woodcock do not 

 remain to breed, and this not alone in the northern 

 part of the kingdom, but also in extreme southern 

 counties. For instance, careful inquiry made some few 

 years ago by Mr. T. J. Monk, of Lewes, among owners 

 and lessees of game-coverts, and their keepers, elicited 

 the information that in seven districts of East Sussex, 

 comprising twenty-one parishes, it was estimated that 

 there were annually from one hundred and fifty to 

 two hundred woodcocks' nests. Doubtless further 

 particular inquiries, elsewhere conducted, would reveal 

 the information that the woodcock as a nesting species 

 is decidedly on the increase in this country. All the 

 same, it is extremely problematical whether these 

 British-bred woodcock will ever go to swell the game- 

 bags of British sportsmen, seeing that to do so they 

 must remain here for the winter. Such stay would, 

 of course, imply the abandonment of their migratory 

 instinct, and this, I take it, is in the highest degree 

 improbable, for these home-bred woodcock, no doubt, 

 have the migratory instinct quite as deeply implanted 

 in them as have the Scandinavian or other foreign-bred 



'cock. Thus, probably, the woodcock reared in his 



M 



