WOODCOCK. 59 



ter part of that month, and throughout the month of Oc- 

 tober. 



During those months the birds are strong and vigorous, 

 and fly with such rapidity, that he who makes a good bag 

 may well be proud of the achievement. From an expe- 

 rience of more than thirty years, I am firmly convinced, 

 that if they were not killed in such large numbers in July, 

 that we should almost always have an abundance in the 

 autumn. I shall not undertake to give any directions or 

 hints for the pursuit of woodcock in July and August, as 

 I have mostly given up its capture during the summer 

 months, and I hope that all sportsmen may shortly see the 

 error of their ways, and defer the shooting of woodcock 

 till the month of September, and then what fall shooting 

 we should have when the birds are full-grown, and bold 

 of flight I I will relate a little experience that I once had 

 as it wilJ go to show that whenever, by chance, woodcock 

 are spared for a single summer, that they will greatly 

 multiply, and consequently good sport must follow. For 

 a number of reasons I remember the summer of 1854, the 

 Cholera year, as it was a long, dry, and sickly summer, 

 and sportsmen, through fear, had to remain at home ; and 

 it was the first time, in life, that I had been obliged to re- 

 alize the sober side of it, as I was one of many, who had 



