UPLAND SIIOOTI.N'G. 



209 



AUTUMN COCK SHOOTING. 



UTUMN shooting, 



vvliicli is i^ar 

 excellence the 

 ti-ue spoit 

 of the true 

 sportsman — 

 cannot be 

 said to have 



its beginning on any particular day, or even in any particular 

 month of the season. 



Its commencement is regulated by the return of the Wocul- 

 cock, after its brief August migration ; and, the peiiod of that 

 return being uncertain, and dependant on the state of the wea- 

 ther, and other influences, with which we ai'e not fully ac- 

 quainted, the sportsman has only to bide his time, and take the 

 season as he finds it. 



In truth, the variation of the autumnal season is in this res- 

 pect very great, as regards both the Woodcock and the Snipe. 

 1 have shot both of these birds together, in considerable num- 

 bers, on the same ground, so early as the 12th or 15th of Sep- 

 tember ; and again, in other seasons, neither the one nor the 

 other bii'd have made their appearance until so late as the mid- 

 dle of October. 



As a general rule, however, I should say that Woodcock be- 

 gin to return to the Atlantic States, in ordinary seasons, about 

 the middle of September, and the Snipe about the first of Octo- 



