WOODCOCK 249 



market at a price something like 43. per couple. Still, 

 although woodcock are thus ruthlessly followed by these 

 'longshore gunners, the total of killed, even in seasons of 

 greatest slaughter, probably represents but a small per- 

 centage of the arrivals. Some would have us believe 

 that the newly-arrived woodcock is a poor half-starved 

 weakling, but let those who entertain this idea essay to 

 shoot these birds, and they may possibly have cause 

 very promptly to modify such opinion. Fortunate, 

 perhaps, it is that these migrant woodcock are not 

 always too easy to bring down even in the open, and 

 fortunate, too, for sportsmen elsewhere that the aim of 

 the average coast-shooter is not infallible, considering 

 the unlimited opportunities now and again offered him 

 for making a bag of woodcock. 



It is a matter for some surprise that ridiculously easy 

 shots are frequently missed under circumstances for 

 which the most inventive imagination can find little 

 excuse. It has been said that, in proportion to the 

 number of shots fired, the woodcock is missed oftener 

 than any other game-bird, save, perhaps, the snipe. But 

 in England, at all events, the woodcock is usually found 

 in thick covert, and in such environment it cannot be 

 said that the shooting of these birds is at all easy. 

 Moreover, it may be said about woodcock-shooting that 

 anxiety to kill this comparatively rare game-bird often 

 proves an incentive to fire at too great distances. Wood- 

 cock have remarkable powers of flight, different to that 

 of other game-birds, for at times they are as dodgy as 

 the snipe ; to insure becoming a really reliable woodcock 

 shot, one must have a thorough acquaintance with the 

 ways of this bird, both in covert and in the open. 



For several generations sportsmen have regarded the 



