170 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE WOODCOCK AND BIS WAYS, AND SHOOTING HIM 

 IN THE OPEN. 



I HAD other amusements, on -the departure 

 of my friends, than those wet crawls after 

 stags, or shooting tame ones. I had to finish 

 ofi* the rest of the ground unshot, and that took 

 me to the end of the season, for I never left 

 any part of the ground unvisited. You must 

 not imagine that I got out every day of my life 

 —far from it. About the first or second week 

 in November arrived the woodcocks. I always 

 left them alone at first, and allowed them to 

 settle ; when they did, they generally remained 

 for the season. I don't mean to say that if I 

 came across a woodcock I did not shoot him, 

 but I did not go into their glens to look for 

 them. I do not know anything I ever enjoyed 

 more than that winter shooting in jSTovember, 

 December, and January, when the weather 

 would let you shoot. To be sure, the days 

 were short; you could not well see to shoot 



