310 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



Dingwall. It has also bred regularly for the last thirty years 

 at Tarbat, in the same county, information to that effect hav- 

 ing been obligingly sent to me, through Mr Dickinson, the head 

 keeper there. I have also been informed that Woodcocks have 

 always bred at Beaufort, near the Beauly Firth. In the winter of 

 1868-1869, the birds were very scarce on these two properties 

 a circumstance probably owing to the heat and want of rain in 

 the month of July, the young birds having been nearly all killed. 

 In many parts of Morayshire, especially in the neighbourhood 

 of Darnaway forest, considerable numbers remain to breed. 



About the time of the autumnal migration, our preserves derive 

 a large accession of Woodcocks from other countries. These 

 flights reach the coasts during the night, and are well known to 

 lighthouse-keepers, who capture the bewildered travellers in con- 

 siderable numbers. Some of these men have informed me that for 

 seven or eight nights in succession the birds continue to arrive, 

 and hundreds perish by striking themselves against the lantern. 



The food of this species consists chiefly of small worms and the 

 larvae of insects. I recollect, however, finding a large quantity of 

 heather shoots in the stomach of a Woodcock shot on the Lammer- 

 moor hills, Haddingtonshire. 



Judging from an old Scots Act, fixing the prices of wild fowl, 

 and passed in the reign of Queen Mary (dated 1st January, 1551), 

 the Woodcock appears to have been valued at a much lower 

 standard than at present. The following list shows the esti- 

 mation in which the various birds were held: " The cran, five 

 shillings; the swan, five shillings; the wild guse, five shillings; 

 the claik, quink, and rute, the price of the peece auchteene pennies; 

 item the quhaip, six pennies; the woodde cocke, four pennies, the 

 dousane of laverocks, and utheris small birdes, four pennies; the 

 snipe and quailzie, price of the peece twa pennies." 



THE GREAT SNIPE. 



SCO LOP AX MAJOR. 



HAS occurred in several instances in the western counties: one was 

 shot near Ardrishaig in the autumn of 1864, and exhibited by Dr 

 Dewar at a meeting of the Natural History Society of Glasgow. 

 It has also been killed in Renfrewshire. More recently, this species 



