THE NEST. DOGS. EECKLESS SLAUGHTER. 237 



For shooting woodcock, a sport that nearly all are partial 

 to, I prefer the setter to the pointer, for the reason that the 

 former are better protected by their thick coats from the 

 thorns of the briars ; again, I have found them less liable 

 to become footsore, with a stronger relish for hunting 

 through damp, and sometimes wet ground ; besides, they 

 are more easily taught to retrieve, and are, in my belief, 

 more intelligent. A gentleman who has frequently shot 

 with me across the Atlantic, uses with great success a pair 

 of cocking spaniels, which answer admirably and make an 

 extremely lively and pretty team, but they are rather toa 

 quick for a veteran ; ten years ago, I should have enjoyed 

 nothing better than such companions. One thing I would 

 recommend, that for woodcock shooting your dogs have 

 plenty of white in their colour, for unless such is the case, 

 you will frequently lose a point and shot by walking past 

 them, an annoyance to yourself and a disappointment to 

 your setter. 



Before concluding, I would call the attention of all good 

 and true lovers of the dog and gun to a practice that exists 

 in Louisiana, and doubtless elsewhere, of killing woodcock 

 with poles at night in the corn-fields, with the assistance 

 of a brilliant torch. Like the noble salmon, the woodcock 

 becomes fascinated or stupefied by the brilliancy of the 

 glare, and falls a ready victim to the club of the midnight 

 prowler. America is now coming to that age when it is 

 absolutely necessary to insist on the laws being enforced 

 for the protection of game and fish. If not, half a century 

 hence, the haunts which now abound with game will be as 

 thoroughly divested of it as the Hudson or Connecticut 



