182 lewis's AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



finding a couple or so of cocks, provided the ground is not too often 

 overrun with shooters.* 



Still later in the season they may be met with in the more deep 

 and sheltered wood-swamps, where the insects, larvae, and earth- 

 worms, protected in a measure from the biting frosts of more 

 exposed situations, are enabled to remain near the surface during 

 the severest weather. Here it is that the sportsman will discover 

 the perforations or borings of this lonely bird. 



The warm and almost impenetrable cedar-swamps are also 

 favorite resorts for such woodcocks as remain in the North during 

 the cold weather, as the springs in such situations seldom freeze, 

 and there is always to be found a scanty supply of suitable food 

 even in the depths of winter. These birds, however, like the 

 snipe, are very uncertain in their movements, being governed a 

 good deal by the state of the weather and the consequent condition 

 of the soil in their natural haunts for boring. 



Woodcocks are very abundant in Jersey and Delaware, particu- 

 larly after a dry spell of weather, as they congregate there from 

 the interior of the country and spread themselves over the wide 

 extent of meadow-lands and marshy cripples so congenial to their 

 habits, and which are so general in the lower portions of these 

 States. Cock-shooting in these districts is as laborious as snipe- 

 shooting, if not more so, especially if pursued — as is, we may say, 

 universally the custom — during the oppressive hot weather of 

 July and August. In wandering over these extensive marshes, 

 or, as they are vulgarly called, mashes, it is necessary for the 



* Our friend, M. T. W. Chandler, Esq., mentioned to us a few days since, in course 

 of conversation, that he had noticed that cocks are seldom or never found in the 

 swamps of an iron-district. He also stated that he considered their absence from 

 such places owing to the general acidity of the soil, which always, in these iron 

 regions, contains a large proportion of oxygen ; a fact, by-the-by, well known to 

 all intelligent farmers, who always spread quantities of lime on such places, to 

 sweeten the soil, as they say, and make it in a condition to produce. We know 

 from our own obsei-vation that but few or no worms can be found in these sour 

 marshes, and the vegetable products themselves are coarse and ill-flavored. 



Mr. Chandler also states that cocks are rare in the coal-regions, owing, no doubt, 

 to the noxious gases that oftentimes are generated in such soils. 



