562 MODERN FARRIER. 



In woodcock-shooting small springing spaniels 

 are chiefly used : they give notice when the bird Ij 

 rises by barking ; and, when well trained, these 

 dogs answer very well. In fact, they are better 

 adapted for this than for pheasant-sliooting : but a 

 good setter will be found, even in cock-shooting, to 

 be fully equal, if not superior to, the springer. — 

 Pointers are as little fit for this diversion as for 

 pheasant-shooting. 



Woodcock shooting is a pleasant amusement in 

 covers wliich are not too thick ; and if the covers be 

 cut through in several places, it becomes more easy 

 to shoot this bird in its passage when he rises, and 

 also to mark him with more certainty. The wood- 

 cock is a clumsy walker, and rises heavily from the 

 ground ; the general case of birds with long wings 

 and short legs. It is thought that this bird, as well 

 as the snipe rises from his bill. When a woodcock 

 is found in an open field, a hedge-row, the pass of a 

 wood, or an unfrequented lane, he generally skims 

 the ground slowly, and is very easily shot : indeed, Ij 

 thus circumstanced, he is the easiest of shots : but, \ 

 when he is flushed in a tall wood, where he is 

 obliged to clear the tops of trees before he can take 

 a horizontal direction (at which time he frequently 

 rises very high, and with great rapidity), then it be- 

 comes difficult to seize the moment of shooting, by | 

 reason of the turnings and twistings which he is ;j.i 

 obliged to make in order to pass between the trees. | 

 A person is often employed as a beater, which is ^ 

 highly necessary, and may be very useful at the j^ 

 same time in marking. A good marker is of essen- ^^j 

 tial service; with his assistance it will be difficult ^■> 

 for a woodcock to escape, as he will generally suffer ,;J 

 himself to be shot at three or four times before he 

 takes a long flight. 



Some have asserted that too much noise cannot 

 be made. Certainly more noise may be made in 



1'. 



