36 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



and remain until the early frosts of the follow- 

 ing autumn prompt them to repeat their southern 

 migration. 



It is singular enough that while too little at- 

 tention is generally paid to the welfare of our 

 game birds during the season of reproduction 

 more especially in preventing the depredations 

 of the egg-stealer and while their diminution 

 is often exclusively and falsely ascribed to the 

 practices of the night-shooter, or the unrestrained 

 indulgence of the sportsman himself; the mani- 

 fest decrease of woodcocks in many parts of 

 Great Britain, of late years, has frequently been 

 erroneously attributed to the wealthy gourmands 

 of Stockholm and Christiania, who, it is alleged, 

 evince the same predilection for the eggs of that 

 bird as is shown in this country for those of the 

 peewit, or lapwing, and we are told that many 

 thousands are thus annually sacrificed for the 

 gratification of the Scandinavian epicure.* On 

 this subject Mr. Lloyd very properly says, " If 

 persons, who entertain such an opinion, were to 



* Since the above was written, I have been much pleased 

 in perusing Mr. Thompson's recently published work on the 

 Birds of Ireland, to find my own opinion confirmed by Mr. 

 George Matthews, who made a sporting excursion to Norway 

 in 1843. " His notes state that the Norwegians seem to know 

 little about woodcocks, and in some places will not eat them." 

 Thompson's ' Natural History of Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 25. 



