21 G FRAiMt <5RESTEK S FIELD SPORTS. 



the sportsman is so fortunate as to find himself favored with 

 that most delicious to the senses, and most luvely to the eye, of 

 all weather, which we know as Indian Summ.er, at the full 

 of the October moon, he may count himself almost certain 

 of finding the coverts well stocked with Woodcock. I have 

 frequently acted on this indication myself, and, in spite of being 

 warned by letters from the country that Cock had not come on, 

 have set out fi-om the city, relying on the combination of the 

 purple haze with the full October moon, veiled in soft silver for 

 the n<tnce, and have rarely been disappointed of good sport. 



In all other respects, the pursuit of Woodcock, the mode of 

 hunting them, and the style of killing them, differ in nothing 

 now from the methods to be used in summer. The birds are, 

 of course, far stronger on the wing, as they are now full grown, 

 and instead of dodging about in the bushes and dropping with- 

 in twenty yards of the muzzle of a gun just discliarged, will 

 soar away over the tree tops, and sometimes fly half a mile at 

 a stretch. 



The difficulty of killing them, is therefin-e increased, although 

 the absence of the green leaf aff'ords a fairer view of tliem, and 

 the man who makes a large bag must depend more on snap 

 shots than on fair chances over steady points. 



In this place it will not be improper to i}isert a slight notice 

 and description of the mode generally adopted for the killing oi 

 Woodcock in Louisiana, Mississippi and the other Southwestern 

 States, by what is termed " Fire-hunting." 



This practice is resorted to, in some degree, as a matter of 

 necessity, owing to the fact that, in these regions which are the 

 favorite winter home of the bird in question, he frequents 

 during the day only the most impracticable cane-brakes and 

 morasses, from which it is only by dint of the severest labor 

 that he can be dislodged. 



Until very recently no other mode of shooting Woodcock 

 was practised at all in these states, as it was regarded as im- 

 possible to pursue them with any success during the day time 

 in their gloomy and difficult fastnesses. Of late years, however, 



