WOODCOCK-SHOOTING. 291 



The knowledge of this trick is essential to marking 

 correctly, and to finding the bird when marked in. 



In thick coverts, always cast the eye forward to the 

 next weak or open spot in the direction of the bird's flight, 

 and higher or lower, as he is declining or rising, whether 

 to get a snap shot at a live bird, to mark one supposed to 

 be hit and falling, or to follow up one which has gone away 

 unhurt. 



I have recovered many dead birds, which my companions 

 have asserted not to be killed, by satisfying myself that 

 they did not cross some weak open place immediately 

 ahead of their course when last seen ; and I have killed 

 many, by waiting until they should cross some such open- 

 ing, in otherwise impervious covert, and then letting them 

 have it, just in the nick of time. 



In summer, birds fly so slowly, and the ground is so 

 close in which one ordinarily shoots, which renders it im- 

 possible ever to make long shots, that to give much allow- 

 ance for flight is unnecessary; an inch or two in snap 

 cross shots is the utmost that can be given. It is, how- 

 ever, sometimes advisable to avoid tearing the birds all to 

 pieces with the shot, to lay the muzzle a little wide of 

 them, so that they shall be on the edge rather than in the 

 centre of the circle of missiles. A very small blow brings 

 down a summer woodcock, and it is rare indeed that one 

 rises a second time after being wounded. 



As to choice of ground, much depends on the country, 

 and much on the season. 



In the southern part of New Jersey, in Salem and 

 Gloucester Counties, where there is no autumn shooting of 



