THE WOODCOCK. 245 



lerly wind is said to drive the birds from the other side of the island 

 to the eastern on account of better shelter, though there is very good 

 about Islay House, — deficient, however, in the bottom or low cover 

 which woodcocks like. I was struck with the correctness of the pre- 

 ceding remark on the 15th of January, when, although the weather 

 for the previous ten days had been excessively wet, a considerable 

 number of cocks were seen in the covers ; the wind being westerly. It 

 changed to south-east in the afternoon, and though not blowing nor 

 raining, the same covers, on being beaten next day, did not contain 

 more than one for ten birds of the day before. A herd, on the moun- 

 tain above the covers, saw four or five in company at twilight on the 

 15th flying in a westerly direction. Snow and frost on the mainland 

 of Scotland have always been remarked to drive woodcocks in numbers 

 to Islay. The keeper has never met with them in quantity after arri- 

 val from higher latitudes, but has seen them so in spring when about 

 leaving for the north. He imagined this increase to come from the 

 mainland of Scotland ; but is it not more probably from Ireland ? The 

 earliest seen by him in autumn appeared at the end of September,* 

 and the latest in spring, early in April, except in one season, the sum- 

 mer of 1844, when a few remained. f At the beginning of August, 

 eight were flushed together, and believed to be parents with their two 

 broods. One or two had occasionally been seen on their twilight flight 

 during that summer. Woodcocks are considered here to leave the 

 covers during the ordinary period of their stay, for the heaths, in open 

 weather, as they cannot bear the drip of the trees during long-con- 

 tinued rain. 



Woodcock shooting, one of the most " exhilarating " of sports, was 

 enjoyed in perfection at Islay, during the few days that the ground 

 was crisped by frost, — the pleasantest of all times for exercise indepen- 

 dently of the satisfaction of being able to walk throughout the day 

 without wetting the feet. In this shooting there were attractions here 



* In beating the extensive plantations at Dunskey, near Portpatrick, Scotland, 

 on the 21st October, 1844, for pheasants and other game, we saw one woodcock, 

 the first met with there that season. On the 26th, six brace were seen ; from which 

 time they continued to increase, and were met with during the winter, as many 

 being in the plantations in mid-winter as at the migratory periods : sixty brace were 

 killed by occasional shooting. 



t P. Mackenzie, when keeper at Wynyard Park, Durham, once killed five wood- 

 cocks on the 2nd of April, which was more than had ever before been killed there on 

 one day. 



