WOODCOCK FIRE-HUNTING. 227 
ed. Asa matter of course they increase rapidly, until 
these solitudes become alive with their simple murmur- 
ing note; and when evening sets in, they fill the high 
land which we have described, in numbers which can 
scarcely be imagined by any one except an eye-witness. 
Another cause, probably, of their being so numerous 
in this section of the country may be owing to their mi- 
gratory habits,as the bird is seen as far north as the 
river St. Lawrence in summer, and we presume that these 
very birds return for their winter residence in Louisiana 
in the very months when “fire-hunting” is practised, 
which is in the latter part of December, January, and 
the first part of February. 
Yet, a resident in the vicinity or among the haunts 
of these birds, may live a life through, and make day 
hunting a business, yet be unconscious that woodcock 
inhabit his path; so much is this the case, that I do 
not know of the birds ever being hunted, in the common 
and universal way, in the places where fire-hunting them 
is practised. 
This novel sport, we presume, originated among the 
descendants of the French, who originally settled on the 
whole tract of country bordering on the Mississippi, as 
high up as it favors this kind of sport. Here it is, that 
“ Beccasse”’? forms a common dish when in season, in 
which the poor and the wealthy indulge as a luxury, too 
common to be a variety, and too excellent not to be al- 
ways welcome. 
