WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 77 



" Nay," says old Barleycorn, smiling at your 

 fancied ignorance, " it is a bushschnip. I haven't 

 sawn a woodcock on these lands since I were a 

 boy." 



You are only at odds about names, however, 

 the farmer fancying that you spoke of the great 

 pileated woodpecker, once common in the forests 

 of Montgomery, and, with its kingly congener, 

 the ivory-billed, long ago so admirably described 

 by Wilson ; while you, perhaps, are almost as 

 far led astray by the quaint but appropriate 

 title, which he bestows upon the bird in ques- 

 tion, and by which it was always distinguished 

 in the primitive days of his fathers. 



As soon as you are set right again, he will 

 tell you that he has seen as many as five or six 

 woodcocks engaged in these serial courtships, in 

 the morning and evening twilight, at this season 

 of the year, making a curious medley of sounds 

 which, perhaps, he will describe as a mingled 

 quacking and whooping, loud enough to be dis- 

 tinctly audible on his porch, at least a hundred 

 yards distant from the meadow. On one occa- 

 sion, while he was standing at the fence, one 

 bird descended so close to another already on 

 the ground, that he saw them engage in a du- 

 etto, which lasted for several moments. They 



