The Zoologist — December, 1870. 2391 



Common Wren. — Can the little favourite of our gardens, like the 

 goldcrest, be a migrant ? Certainly it is partially so, for in no other 

 way can I account for the number invariably seen, each year, about the 

 first fortnight in October, in these bleak marshes. For a few days 

 about this time we find them, often plentifully, near the coast on the 

 Humber and sea embankments, the sand-dunes near the Humber 

 mouth, and at Spurn, far removed from any hedgerow, tree or bush, 

 and where their cheerful "chit, chit" as they flit from stem to stem of 

 the wiry sea grass is lost amidst the thunder of the surf j they also 

 haunt the drains in the marshes, threading their way along the reed- 

 beds, and I have even found them in turnip-fields. 



Woodcock. — Monday, October 10. Shot the first woodcock. 

 Judging from the number exposed for sale in the game-shops on the 

 following morning, there must have been a rather large first flight : 

 the N.E. gale on Sunday was certain to bring them on the coast. In 

 the January number of the 'Zoologist' (S. S. 1977), writing on the 

 immigration of this species, I remark " that the winds which drive the 

 woodcock to our coast are those blowing from N.W. to E, that the 

 stronger the gale from between these points the more likely we are to 

 have good sport," and that " they never come with the wind in the S. 

 or W." This is undoubtedly the case, as scores of our sportsmen can 

 testify ; yet I think it does not therefore follow that these winds 

 should be those most favourable for the crossing of the cocks. May 

 not the fact of their being always found at the period of migration on 

 this coast with the wind from these northerly quarters, — and the stronger 

 the gale the greater the number, — rather prove that the opposite is the 

 case, and that, exhausted by their flight, they drop directly they make 

 the land, instead of proceeding, as they probably would have done 

 under more favourable circumstances, with the wind against them, 

 forward to their winter haunts; and that the reason we do not meet 

 with any, with the wind blowing from the opposite half of the compass, 

 is that they then do not alight, but pass on in the night, and first 

 alight in the West of England or in Ireland. Woodcocks must come 

 over some time or other in October, and it is rarely at this season we 

 have the wind anywhere except from S. to W. If it does blow from 

 the opposite quarters it is pretty certain to be a gale, and in that case 

 look out for the cocks, —they are certain to drop along the coast. Our 

 sportsmen will all say it is the N. or N.E. winds that bring them over, 

 and this is undoubtedly true on this side the country, but is it not 

 rather that these winds are those which soonest exhaust their powers 



