194 RETURN OF BIRDS TO SAME HAUNTS. [PART IT. 
which had brought them into the neighbourhood 
apparently ceased to exist, for from that time he 
had never seen a single individual of the species. 
Those which I have mentioned as making their 
appearance in 1856 are the only specimens that 
J remember ever to have heard of in the Island 
since he told me this some fifteen or eighteen 
years ago. 
The instinct which led the Buzzards (in the 
instance I have mentioned) to seek out a particular 
tree as peculiarly apt for the purposes of building, 
is certainly very remarkable, but it is perhaps 
scarcely more so than that which induces some— 
most indeed, I believe I may say—of our migra- 
tory birds to return to (or rather haunt) the same 
localities year after year in almost precisely the 
same numbers. I may instance Woodcocks, and 
shall, I am sure, be borne out in my assertion by 
the experience of all sportsmen who have oppor- 
tunities for forming an opinion, when I say that 
uot only the same coverts, but the same parts of 
those coverts, will almost invariably be found at 
the same season to produce very nearly the same 
number, it being perfectly immaterial whether the 
whole of the contingent furnished by it the pre- 
ceding year had been killed off or not. 
