THE WOODCOCK. 187 



but we advise the exploration of the cornfields by the inquiring 

 sportsman or naturalist, for the confirmation of our statement 

 regarding the habits of these birds. 



However, when we take into consideration the immense slaughter 

 of cocks during the month of July, it is not very hard to account 

 for their scarcity during the following month, even if it were not 

 the season of moulting ; and we see no reason why we should be 

 racking our brains to account for their disappearance. 



FLIGHT OF WOODCOCKS. 



The flight of young cocks is slow and regular, and seldom pro- 

 tracted in a cripple to a greater distance than fifty yards. They 

 merely skim over the tops of the reeds or bushes, and drop sud- 

 denly and heavily to the ground, with a kind of impetus that sends 

 them running forward several yards. 



In July, young cocks are very tender and easily killed, one or 

 two small pellets being quite sufiicient to bring them down. Later 

 in the season, having gained strength and muscle, cocks fly with 

 much more vigor. They may then be seen darting off, with a shrill 

 piping note, in sharp and rapid zigzags, even over the tops of the 

 highest trees ; and it requires the steady hand and piercing eye of 

 the long-practised shooter to stop them in their headlong career. 



When found on the open grounds and meadows, it is easy enough 

 to shoot woodcocks ; but it is quite another affair in the high woods 

 and thickets, as they rise, not unfrequently, in an almost spiral, 

 perpendicular direction, twisting and turning with such rapidity 

 that they gain the tops of the trees and dart off before they can be 

 fully covered even with the sharpest eye and readiest hand. 



FIRE-HUNTING OF COCKS. 



There is a mode of taking woodcocks in Louisiana, which is 

 practised, perhaps, in no other section of the country ; it is termed 

 "fire-hunting," and was, no doubt, introduced by the French 

 population of those parts. A full description of this sport, from 

 the graphic pen of T. B. Thorpe, Esq., will be found in Porter's 



