WOODCOCK FIRE-nUNTlNG. 231 



an available light in a circle of about twenty yards in 

 diameter. Parties are frequently made up who hunt 

 during a given number of hours, and the destruction of 

 the birds on these occasions is almost beyond belief. 



These parties afford rare sport, and are often kept 

 up all night. 



When this is the case, the sportMiKiu not unfre- 

 quently sleeps to so late an hour in the day that he has 

 only time to rise, sip a cup of strong coffee, and leisurely 

 dress for dinner, when it is announced as ready, and 

 woodcock, plentiful to wasting, are smoking on the board 

 before him. 



Such a dinner, the dullest intellect can imagine, is a 

 repast both for sense and soul, — for woodcock and wit 

 are synonymous. 



