266 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
an instance of the way in which the theory of pro- 
tective imitation is sometimes carried to quite 
imaginary lengths. The empty nests, so often 
found, are in most cases not strictly nests at all, 
but are made by the cock as he rolls and presses 
himself upon the earth to show off before the hen in 
the breeding season. Owing to its diet largely con- 
sisting of wireworms and other insect pests, the 
Plover is a bird extremely helpful to agriculture. 
WOODCOCK. 
{^S col op ax rusticola.) 
The Woodcock is another well-known winter 
visitor which nests in Britain in smaller, but in- 
creasing, numbers. The great annual inrush occurs 
in October and the early part of November, the 
greatest number of birds being expected to arrive 
at the time of the full moon nearest the beginning 
of November. These winter immigrants are 
chiefly birds which have bred in Norway, Sweden, 
and perhaps Northern Russia ; but it is at present 
uncertain how far the birds which breed in Britain 
share in a similar south-westward movement, and 
how far they remain in their summer haunts for 
the winter season. In different cases, birds marked 
in summer have been shot in autumn both in the 
