434 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
northwards to Caithness.* ‘There is no doubt that many more 
birds remain to breed now than formerly; and this increase 
appears to be owing to the great extent of country which has 
been covered with plantations during the past few years, par- 
ticularly, according to St. John, with fir plantations. t 
What reason, asks Selby, is to be assigned for this change in 
their habits? Is it to be attributed to a change in our seasons, or 
are we to look for it in the great increase of woods or plantations, 
so general over all the island, affording these birds additional and 
secure retreats, as well as an abundant and constant supply of 
food?t The late Sir William Jardine attributed the circumstance 
to the increased attention paid to Ornithology, and to such facts 
being recorded; he could not perceive any change in the country 
to induce the birds to remain more frequently than heretofore. § 
Another reason may be found in the circumstance that now many 
owners and lessees of manors do not allow their coverts to be 
disturbed in the spring, and give orders to their keepers to spare 
the Woodcocks after a certain date. 
Mr. T. Monk, of Lewes, some years since was at considerable 
pains to obtain statistics as to the number of Woodcocks remaining 
to breed in the eastern division of Sussex; and, extraordinary as 
it may appear, the conclusion he arrived at was to the effect that 
in seven districts of East Sussex, comprising twenty-one parishes, 
there were annually, on an average, from one hundred and fifty to 
two hundred nests of this bird. || 
It is not, however, with the question of nesting that we are 
now concerned, but with the singular habit which this bird has of 
carrying its young under certain circumstances—a habit which 
has been placed beyond doubt by the testimony of many com- 
petent observers, and which has been very beautifully depicted by 
Mr. Wolf in the accompanying illustration. The observation of 
this habit is by no means new. Scopoli, in his ‘Annus Primus 
Historico-Naturalis, long ago remarked upon it, and several 
* Mr. More might also have added Ireland, since several instances of the 
Woodcock breeding there are mentioned by Thompson (yol. ii., p. 247), and many 
others have since been recorded. 
+ * Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands,’ p. 264 (ed. 1878). 
{ ‘Mag. Zool. and Bot.,’ i. p. 201. 
§ ‘British Birds,’ ili. p. 171 (Naturalist’s Library). 
|| The statistics collected were subsequently published in ‘The Field’ of 25th 
February, 1871. | 
