28 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
ing the fall migration a greater number of woodcock 
than have been seen for many years. We have heard 
of bags being made of fifteen or twenty birds to a 
gun, and gunners have told us of starting thirty or 
forty woodcock in a single day. One gunner of great 
experience and knowledge of the habits of the birds and 
the particular sections to which they delight to resort, 
has told us that in the autumn of 1909 he started in 
a single day by actual count not less than fifty birds. 
The number that he and a companion killed was some- 
what less than one-third this number. They kept 
within the law of the State in which they were shoot- 
ing, but the gunner confessed that the temptation to 
overrun the limit was strong. 
The observations which have been carried on as to 
the present abundance or scarcity of woodcock are not 
sufficient to justify us in concluding that they are really 
increasing, but two or three more favorable seasons 
should make us hope that before long the birds will 
be back with us again in something like their old-time 
abundance. 
It is certain that of late years in parts of New Eng- 
land birds have bred where they have not been seen 
for many years before; and under present conditions, 
when woodcock are killed only in the autumn, they are 
usually fat, strong-winged birds, very different from 
the little cheepers of mid-July. 
This improved condition of things is no doubt due 
to the adoption of proper game laws in the British 
Provinces, New England and the States north of Mary- 
