WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 163 



the matter born. Indeed, a love of sport is the 

 ruling passion of the Irish peasant — strong, even in 



his starvation, God help him ! The gossoons, 



having taken in hand their shillelaghs, proceed in line 

 through the woods, giving tongue, when they flush a 

 cock, with "Mark cock," and waiting breathlessly 

 for the sound of his funeral oration. If no shot is 

 fired, or, if fired, a cry of " Down dead " does not 

 follow the report, they resume their beating, as before. 

 In these woods, their late proprietor has shot fifty and 

 sixty couples frequently in a day ; and the late Duke 

 of Richmond, we believe, when Lord Lieutenant of 

 Ireland, received a pie as a present which contained 

 twenty score of woodcocks ! 



We have no right to suppose our young friends 

 will ever set up their (cocking) staff in this land of 

 promise, and therefore it is our duty to instruct them 

 how to hope for a supply of this their game in less 

 densely inhabited neighbourhoods. When in places 

 likely to hold a cock, let them towards evening try 

 the mosses, banks of rivulets, and boggy bottoms ; at 

 that time the birds are on the " road," or feed, and 

 consequently, are more easily met with than when 

 laid up in the snug harbour of some old osier bed, or 

 beneath the root of some monarch of the wood in the 

 deepest recesses of some wide cover. When flushed, 

 he will do well to bear in mind that the woodcock 

 seldom, if ever, pitches on feeding ground. 



The Woodcock [Scolopax riisticola). — The wood- 

 cock is the largest species in the genus Scolojmci/hr, 



