Five fledgling sea eagles left their nests in western Scotland this summer, bringing to 34 the number of wild birds successfully raised since transplants from Norway began in 1975.

(A) bringing
(B) and brings
(C) and it brings
(D) and it brought
(E) and brought

Bringing is the present participle of the verb to bring. As used here, it correctly describes an action that happens at the same time as the action in the main clause; bringing indicates that the number of wild birds became 34 when the five eagles left their nests.

A Correct. The participle bringing correctly links the two ideas in the sentence.
B In this construction, the subject of the second verb must be the same as the subject of the first verb, but five eagles cannot grammatically or logically be the subject of brings
C There is no referent for it
D There is no referent for it
E Five eagles can be the grammatical subject of brought, but not the logical one; it was not the eagles themselves but rather the entire action of their leaving their nests that brought the number o 34

The correct answer is A.

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