WINTER BIRDS OF PASSAGE 



175 



collect in large numbers, and often provide excellent sport. 

 It is chiefly a matter of the weather whether they collect in 

 large numbers at this or any other point in their path ; cold 

 weather sends them on, and mild weather attracts them to 

 unfrozen feeding-grounds in the woods and mires. Most of 

 our own breeding birds seem to begin to move southwards 

 about the end of August. But the date and extent of their 

 wanderings seem very variable ; they do not appear to be 

 guided by strict rule any more than the other species nesting 



WOODCOCK 



with us which are noted in the chapter on the Departure of 

 Birds. Woodcock are regarded as immigrants in winter, 

 not emigrants, because the majority of the species nest more 

 to northwards, and move down at this time ; but they pro- 

 vide an excellent example of the way in which the same birds 

 may have a different classification in different parts of their 

 range, and the same species may be represented in any one 



