< DRAWING' A WOODCOCK 277 



which runs through the leg into the thigh, and 

 this should be done as soon after the bird is shot 

 as possible. The process is a very simple one. 

 The leg is broken, and the sinew which is attached 

 to it is pulled out of the thigh, thereby rendering 

 that well-known epicure's portion more tender. 



The wing-feathers of the woodcock are most 

 useful to the trout-fisherman, and satisfactorily 

 represent the mottled and freckled wings of many 

 of those water-flies on which trout love to make 

 their evening meal, viz., the large, fat sedge-flies, 

 caperers, etc., which make their appearance when 

 the sun is declining under the distant hills at the 

 close of a summer's day. 



It has been stated that woodcocks are in the 

 habit of carrying their young on their backs. I 

 have never been fortunate enough to witness such 

 a performance, and was somewhat sceptical as to 

 the truth of such an assertion. Some few years 

 ago, however, a well-known coach-builder in 

 Southampton, who rented the shooting of a large 

 wood some miles distant from that city, and 

 in which few woodcocks are known to breed 

 annually, informed me that he had himself seen a 

 woodcock flying up and down a small brook 

 which runs through the wood referred to, carrying 

 one of its young brood on its back, and that it 

 repeated the performance until it had evidently 

 thus exercised the entire family. My informant 

 minutely described the place where he lay hidden 

 amongst the fern and made his observations, 



