WOODCOCK FIRE HUNTING. 227' 



ed. As a matter of course they increase rapidly, until 

 these solitudes Ijccome alive with their simple murmur- 

 ing note ; and when evening sets in, they fill the high 

 land which we have described, in numbers which can 

 scarcely be imagined by any one except an eye-witness. 



Another cause, probably, of their being so numerous 

 in this section of the country may be owing to their mi- 

 gratory habits, as the bird is seen as far north as the 

 river St. Lawrence in summer, and we presume that these 

 very birds return for their winter residence in Louisiana 

 in the very months when " fire-hunting " is practised, 

 which is in the latter part of December, January, and 

 the first part of February. 



Yet, a resident in the vicinity or among the haunts 

 of these birds, may live a life through, and make day 

 hunting a business, yet be unconscious that woodcock 

 inhabit his path ; so much is this the case, that I do 

 not know of the birds ever being hunted, in the common 

 and universal way, in the places where fire-hunting them 

 is practised. 



This novel sport, we presume, originated among the 

 descendants of the French, who originally settled on the 

 whole tract of country bordering on the Mississippi, as 

 high up as it favors this kind of sport. Here it is, that 

 " Beccasse " forms a common dish when in season, in 

 which the poor and the wealthy indulge as a luxury, too 

 common to be a variety, and too excellent not to be al- 

 ways welcome. 



