310 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
a variety of ferns, and many other moisture-loving 
plants, grow in wild luxuriance. These runs, or 
swales, are often so narrow that the best way to hunt 
them, if two are shooting together, is for each to take 
a side and let the dog work between them. The 
birds, when started, will either show themselves above 
the alders, or, what is more likely, will break out on 
one side or the other, and fly forward along the edge 
of the bushes, giving a perfectly open shot and one 
which not even a tyro ought to miss. In working out 
such places the bell should be put on the dog, for it 
is often so dark beneath the thick growth that it is 
difficult to see him. Should he come to a point, and 
the bird decline to rise, a heavy stick or stone thrown 
into the bushes just in front of him will often flush it. 
One of the most instructive articles on woodcock 
shooting ever written is from the pen of Mr. B. Wa- 
ters and was published in Forest and Stream in the year 
1903. Iam glad to be able to reproduce it—with a few 
minor changes—in these pages. 
Of all the kinds of shooting of field and forest the 
sport of woodcock shooting holds the warmest place 
in the hearts of its devotees. The woodcock shooter 
is an enthusiast of enthusiasts. He may take a keen 
pleasure in bringing other game birds to bag, but when 
woodcock shooting is under consideration comparison 
ceases. And indeed this sport possesses many fas- 
cinating features peculiar to itself. First of all, it can 
at best be indulged in only in very small quantities. 
There is but little of it when compared with the abun- 
