CHAPTER Xlir. 



WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 



Here is, indeed, a stirring subject — the pursuit of 

 at once the daintiest and most sporting of all our 

 feathered quarry. Elsewhere we shall deal, at some 

 length, with its natm'al history and social details 

 — here we confine om'selves to the most approved 

 methods of finding and bagging this manna and fat- 

 ness of the woods. These savouiy strangers — the 

 woodcocks — wherever they come from, arrive gene- 

 rally in the British Islands about the middle of 

 October. They then lodge principally abroad ; but 

 the first fall of snow drives them into the woods, and 

 in November they are to be met with m cover, what- 

 ever the nature of the weather. 



In covers not too high or thick, or where rides 

 have been cut through the well-grown timber, cock- 

 shooting with a team of small spaniels or cockers, is 

 the most picturesque and inspiriting of all trigger- 

 sporting. The precaution of having markers eligibly 



