CHARADRIIDA. 569 
THE WOODCOCK. 
Sc6Lopax rustTicuLa, Linnzeus. 
The annual ‘flights’ of this well-known species usually begin 
in October, and a return migration northwards is noticed early in 
March, when the birds which intend to breed in our islands betake 
themselves to suitable coverts. Of late years, owing to the increase 
of plantations in the vicinity of feeding-grounds, the number of 
the individuals which remain has been greatly augmented; and 
nests have been found in most parts of England, Wales, Scotland 
and Ireland, except on some of the barest islands. Early in autumn 
the home-bred birds disappear from their haunts, few, if any, being 
seen until the October influx, and they are popularly supposed to 
have left the country; but their disappearance is partially attribut- 
able to self-effacement during the moult, for many birds which had 
been captured and marked with metal rings in the spring in 
Northumberland, have been shot in the same county in autumn. 
Migration takes place by night, when casualties against the lanterns 
of lighthouses and vessels are not infrequent. Birds have often 
been known to alight when the wind was from a quarter directly 
opposed to the direction whence they might be expected ; but this 
was probably due to the existence of a different current of air in the 
more elevated strata through which they had been passing. 
