WOODCOCK FIRE-HUNTING. 
“Tis murderous, but profitable.’— Tom Owen. 
One of the most beautiful and “ legitimate” amusements 
of gentlemen, is woodcock shooting. In the “ back- 
woods,” where game of every kind is plentiful, it is pur- 
sued as often as a necessary of life, as for the gratifica- 
tion afforded by the sport. 
Persons living im the. hotbeds of civilization, but 
who yet retain enough of the old leaven of the wild man, 
to love to destroy the birds of the air, and the beasts of 
the field, are obliged to eke out the excitements of the 
field by conventional rules, which prescribe the manner 
of killing, the weapon to be used, and the kind of dog 
to be employed ;—and the sportsman who is most correct 
in all these named particulars, is deservedly a “ celeb- 
rity’? in his day and generation. 
No sport is more properly guarded and understood 
by amateur hunters than woodcock shooting, and no 
sport is more esteemed. Therefore, it was that the an- 
nouncement that there was a section of the United 
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