312 



BIRDS. 



— I say, as is well known — this is the very time at which these 

 birds ought not to he, killed. Why ought they not to be killed 

 Because, between the 12th and the 17th of March the "return of the 

 Woodcocks " takes place, on passage to their breeding haunts in the 

 north, both of our own isles and to the greater nesting grounds of the 

 forests and birch-woods of northern Europe ; while at the same time 

 many of our own home-breeding birds, even close to where some 

 may be killed at the late date of 15th March, are actually engaged 

 in incubation, or at least in preparing for the peaceful occupancy of 

 their summer homes. 



Horn- makes a remark, viz. that "since Woodcocks began to 

 breed in any numbers in the north of Perthshire, there has been 

 a marked falling off in the number of the birds which fall to the 

 gun when beating the covers at the end of the season." Naturally, 

 such is to be expected. The birds are not entirely sedentary, and 

 indeed may still have really migratory impulses ; and the birds bred 

 at any one place may be expected to leave for some time at least 

 after they begin to occupy new localities. And if sport from birds 

 of passage is to be expected, then they must be looked for and 

 expected at their regular migratory seasons. If, on the other hand, 

 the covers are not shot over till the end of the season, then most 

 have passed by, and those bred there have long before departed. 

 But where all conditions, on the other hand, are favourable, as in 

 some places in the milder west, birds do become resident, only 

 shifting ground locally as necessities arise ; but if the circumstances 

 do not continue favourable and develop unusual extremes, then the 

 birds will again exercise their right to get out of that^ 



Here, i.e. in the centre of Stirlingshire, and on my own ground, 

 many more birds are now resident than was formerly the case when 

 they were only of the "value of spring and autumn visitants." And 

 at no time has such marked evidence of this change taken place as 

 within the last three years, and most remarkable of all in the years 

 of 1902 and 1904, as I have several times already pointed out (and 

 which may I be permitted to ask some of my readers to " read back 

 to "). (See the last volume of this series ; also since its appearance 

 in October 1904 the further remarks in the Annals Scot. Nat. Hist.^ 

 1904, not to mention some excellent statistical work done by 

 Messrs. Buchanan in Clyde, which I hope to see reproduced in some 

 form shortly. 1) 



^ Messrs. Buchanan have expended great trouble and immense correspondence over 

 this work — to me fully convincing in its teachings — having collected large 'masses of 



