BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 385 
(Glencairn) at the end of February, 1900 or 1901, when snow 
was lying on the ground. This date is exceptional, but 
nests with their fuU complement of four eggs are commonly 
found before the middle of March. The shooting of these 
birds, therefore, up till March 1st, as aUowed under the old 
regulations, was to be regretted, and is now very properly 
not aUowed. For, by the latest "Order" of the Dumfries 
County Council, {see Introduction) it has become iUegal to 
kiU Woodcock between February 1st and October 1st, both 
dates exclusive. As has akeadybeen indicated, the Woodcock 
has two broods in the year (some authorities say three), 
and nests with eggs have been found so late as July 17th! 
Twenty-three days being required for incubation, it is obvious 
that the young birds of such late broods were not fit to be 
shot on August 1st, as aUowed under the old regulations 
But there are some who object to its now being iUegal to shoot 
them m September, urging as a contention that our locally- 
bred birds all leave us late in that month or early in October. 
The usual number of eggs laid is four, but Mr. s! 
Copland writes me from Canonbie that in 1908 he 
knew of a nest containing five. Woodcock often carry their 
young to and from their feeding-grounds, the young bird 
bemg held between the feet and pressed close up against 
the abdomen, but Mr. John BeU assures me that he once 
surprised a Woodcock near Drumlanrig which took its 
nesthng by the neck and carried it off in its beak. 
In August and September, when the coverts and planta- 
tions are at their densest, these birds resort to the moorlands, 
bemg frequently flushed from stretches of bracken. At 
this season of the year the old birds are moulting. Howard 
Saunders writes :— " Early in autumn the homebred birds 
(^sappear from their haunts, few, if any, being seen untU 
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 
sprmg in Northumberland, have been shot in the same county 
BB 
