242 WITH BOAT AND GUN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEY. 



WOODCOCK. 



Exceptional Luck.— Mr. Drummond Hay seems to have been in luck's way in season 

 1 889-1890. 



The season of 1889-1890 was an exceptionally good one for woodcocks. A great 

 deal of rain had fallen during the summer, and many districts in this province were 

 flooded, while the Yangtze had risen so high that the banks of the lower river were 

 over-fiown. It is in clumps of reeds on the banks of the river where woodcocks are 

 very frequently found in the winter, but being driven out of these resorts they had to 

 find shelter in bamboo coppices in the contiguous country, so that there was hardly a 

 favourable clump of bamboo within the ordinary shooting grounds where woodcocks 

 were not met with at some time or another during the season. 



" One day I had been shooting," writes Mr. Drummond Hay, " in the Taitsan 

 district with very poor sport, having bagged a solitary cock pheasant which fell to 

 the only shot I had had during the day. I was returning to my boat earlier than 

 usual, tired and disappointed, and, when nearing the boat rather late in the afternoon, 

 sent my dog into a clump of bamboo which I was passing. A woodcock rose, which 

 I shot, and before I had time to re-load the dog put up another which I got with my 

 left barrel. Thus encouraged I tried a larger clump of bamboo close by and put up 

 more birds, which were so thick that in an hour's time I had bagged 10 and had to 

 desist as the light was failing. The next week I returned to the same spot and 

 commenced at the bamboo clump where I had put up most of the birds the previous 

 week. I sent my coolie and the dog into the covert and immediately got a right and 

 left, so, hurriedly re-loading, I was just in time for a second right and left, and then 

 picked up all four birds. I beat about the neighbourhood all day and succeeded in 

 bagging 10 woodcocks. The following week I visited the same spot and bagged 

 seven, and it is needless to say that for the remainder of the season I devoted my 

 attention to the same district, with varying success, but never with a blank day,— 

 closing the season with a total of 43 woodcocks. That season I got birds from coverts 

 where, unfortunately, I failed to find them in succeeding years, and cannot look for 

 such success until there happens to be a similar wet season, which has not as yet 

 occurred. However, the season 1889-1890 will always remain in my recollection as 

 an exceptionally successful one for woodcock shooting." 



Delightful Bag.— At Haie in November, 1892, Mr. W. C. Murray in 2 days made the fine 



bag of 



32 Woodcocks. 



16 Pheasants. 



3 Geese. 



1 Deer. 



1 Mallard, 



Total, 53 head. 



Enviable Bag.— On 27 November, 1903, Mr. Oliveira got 14 woodcocks. 



An Old-Time Bag.— Mr. Drummond Hay records an ordinary bag made in the old days 

 which sportsmen in the present time would envy. An hour's shooting on the strip of 

 land between the River and Eching City, some eleven miles above Chinkiang, 



