THE VILLAGE OF BEAR RIVER, DIGBY CO., N.S. 

 GOOD CENTRE FOR AUTUMN COCK SHOOTING. 



XI 



COCK SHOOTING 



WHILE the breeding range of the European woodcock is one 

 of extraordinary dimensions, extending from the British 

 Isles and the Azores throughout Europe and Asia eastward to 

 Japan, and reaching as far north as the 60 th parallel of latitude, 

 the American woodcock has for its domain only that eastern part of 

 North America stretching from the tropics to the waters of the 

 St. Lawrence river and the great Canadian lakes, limited to the 

 westward by the prairies and the high arid plains which occupy so 

 largely the central portion of the continent and are ill adapted to a 

 bird which is no lover of the open. 



Nova Scotia is a noted breeding ground of the American wood- 

 cock. Many of her rivers, slowly coursing through fertile alluvial 

 valleys, are broadly margined by level intervale meadows studded 

 with clumps of alderbrake, withrod, and wild willows. Here are 

 favourite haunts of the shy russet-coated little bird. 



Of all the game birds of America none is so endeared to the lover 

 of country life, or more highly prized both by the epicure and sports- 

 man. Not ' Bob- white ', nor even the English snipe, inspires 

 half so much affection, and the pursuit of either of these will speedily 

 be abandoned when a flight of cock is reported in the coverts. 



Granted an inborn love of sport sufficient to make light of a 

 hard day's tramp, and admitting that the size of. the bag is not 



