TJIK WOUUCOClC.j 



BV FIELD, WOOD AND WATEll. 



[tIIK 'WOODCOCK. 



It 



past at tlie expense of the present. It is 

 tluToforo safe to be somewhat iiiorecluloua in 

 ttiia matter, in order not to attacli 80 mucli 

 credit to these statements as some writers do. 

 There is a greater number of sportsmen now 

 than formerly, at least in the shootinc; art ; 

 and this may aecount for fewer woodcoeks 

 being killed by any single person. The 

 pport, wo believe, is more generally diffused, 

 but not seriously, if at all, diminished from for- 

 mer times. 



In regard to the kind of dogs which should 

 bo used by tho woodcock shooter, spaniels are 

 the best. Pointers and setters are taken by 

 some ; but they are considered inferior to the 

 spaniel where the woods are extensive and 

 chickly set uith underwood, brambles, and 

 thorns. The spaniel should, however, be well 

 trained, and should be taught both to hunt 

 close or wide, as circumstances require. Both 

 beaters and markers are requisite in extensive 

 woods. The employment of beating and mark- 

 ing necessitates a regularly digested plan of 

 operations, and a minute regard to instructions 

 previously agreed upon among the parties. 

 Those engaged in it must take their stations 

 at a given spot, and pay attention to each 

 other's signs and movements, otherwise they 

 will be working at cross purposes, and prove 

 worse than useless. Many beaters take sticks 

 to beat the bushes and underwood ; while the 

 markers take up their position on some ele- 

 vated piece of ground, or even some tree, that 

 they may the better see the birds, and mark ac- 

 curately where they drop, in order to be able to 

 give correct instructions to the sportsman. 



Larore numbers of woodcocks are taken by 

 means of nets and traps, and find their way to 

 the London markets, where they generally 

 bring tolerably high prices. It is said that, in 

 the neighbourhood of Torrington, in Devon- 

 shire, these birds are so numerous throughout 

 the season, that they have been killed to the 

 value of nearly two thousand pounds in one 

 year. Catching them by nets and springes is 

 common in the hilly counties of Cumberland, 

 Westmoreland, and Durham. The same prac- 

 tices are in operation in "Wales to a great ex- 

 tent. Mr. Dobson, in his Kunopcedia, says — 

 *' The poacher's dog in Wales is an ugly, raw- 

 boned, cross-made derivation from tho light 

 setter, degraded through half-a-dozen genera- 



tions of bastardy, with a view of biiiig made 

 into pointers. Than this, it is not po-^siblo to 

 conceive more unpromising material.^; and if 

 such bo tho effects produclblo upon this 

 stock, it is fair to conclude what u similar 

 disciplino is capable of doing with superior 

 natures. i3y hunger and hard work, of both of 

 which they have plenty, they aro brought down 

 to obedience; and their draw upon a cock iti 

 a wood, under tho dread of their master's arm, 

 with the power of which they soon become ac- 

 quainted, is wrought into a full stop." 



Formerly there was a regular system of 

 shooting and entrapping woodcocks pursued in 

 Scotland, for the Edinburgh and Glasgow mar- 

 kets. In some localities of that country the 

 birds are very common, and there is a varied 

 abundance of food for their support, particu- 

 larly on the western side of the island, where 

 tho winter season is comparatively mild and 

 open, and tho springs and boggy grounds are 

 not so liable to be frozen. In a letter written 

 by Sir AValter Scott, to a friend, he says—" I 

 have been out for two or three days endeav- 

 ouring to obtain a shot or two at a woodcock, 

 but I have not been successful ; the fact is, 

 these birds are now taken off wholesale by a 

 band of men who do nothing else for the season 

 but kill them, and they find a ready and proii- 

 table market for them in all our large and 

 populous Scottish cities and towns. I was 

 lately informed, by one poulterer of Edinburgh, 

 that he had paid one man nearly a hundred 

 pounds last season for woodcocks, which ho 

 had chiefly shot in the western parts of Argyl- 

 shire and Inverness-shire. This seems prodigi- 

 ous." It is likewise stated, in the work from 

 which this letter is taken {Annals of Sporting, 

 Edinburgh), that formal applications had been 

 made to the magistracy of several districts 

 in Scotland, to endeavour to put a stop to this 

 wholesale destruction and tralllc. 

 t Ireland is highly praised for its woodcock 

 sportiug. Colonel liawker says, " that a real 

 good sportsman feels more gratified by flush- 

 ing and killing a woodcock, or even a few snipes, 

 than bags-full of game that have been reared 

 on his own or his neighbour's estate. Lo- 

 calities of cock shooting aro widely distributed 

 over the British dominions. Ireland, through- 

 out, is unquestionably the very best spot for a 

 zealot in cock and snipe shooting ; the nature 



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