WOODCOCK SHOOTING 



WOODCOCK shooting in most of 

 the states is rapidly becoming a 

 thing of the past. Yet to those 

 few sportsmen who swear by it, this sport is 

 the most fascinating that the gun affords. The 

 increase in drainage and the clearing away of 

 the natural cover, together with injudicious 

 game-laws, is gradually putting an end to 

 this branch of shooting. 



The woodcock, wald-schneppe, longbill, 

 bog-sucker, timber- doodle, or big-headed 

 snipe he has various other names is a bird 

 of the night, a frequenter of thickets and 

 brushy cover. He likes to be as far from the 

 madding crowd as he conveniently can get, 

 and hence he is not so approachable and eas- 

 ily found as his half-brother, the jack-snipe of 

 the prairies and boggy pastures. And yet he 

 will plump down into little spots of cover 

 very close to the habitations of men, and re- 

 turn there year after year. I have shot 

 woodcock along the rivers so close to a main 

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