COCK IN THE CORN. 67 



like hunting for snipe in the spring, being hard work and 

 plenty of it — an all-day job to make it a success, but a 

 success to almost a certainty, provided that you are 

 in a good corn and fair cock- country ; that the equi- 

 noctial storms are over ; that there has been sufficient 

 wet ; and that you are willing to work and walk all 

 day long. The flight here is usually a short one and is 

 in a straight line, except when the bird is flushed near 

 the edge of the patch, when he will fly to the outside of 

 the corn and twist back again, dropping in the edge or 

 any covert convenient. The most successful way to se- 

 cure him is by snap shooting as he just tops the corn in 

 his flight. When missed, I usually follow a cock in the 

 corn at once, as his flight will usually be short and in a di- 

 rect line from where seen last. If he is not readily 

 flushed again, you may suspect that, after alighting, he 

 ran off* in a side line ; then by returning and beating 

 the ground a little wide of his line of flight, he, in all pro- 

 bability, will be flashed, for the oftener a cock is flushed 

 the easier he is to flush again. 



Woodcock occasionally late in the autumn appear in 

 large numbers in certain localities, with the intention 

 probably of remaining a short time to recruit themselves 

 for their flight southward. A friend, with whom I used 



