AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 57 



For shooting woodcock, a sport that I prefer to all 

 other field sports, I prefer the setter to the pointer, 

 for the reason that the former are better protected 

 by their thick coats from the thorns of the briars ; 

 again, I have found them less liable to become foot- 

 sore, with a stronger relish for hunting through damp, 

 and sometimes wet ground; besides, they are more 

 easily taught to retrieve, and are, in my belief, more 

 intelligent. Mr. D -, a gentleman who has fre- 

 quently shot with me, uses with great success a pair 

 of cocking spaniels, which answer admirably and make 

 an extremely lively and pretty team, but they are 

 rather too quick for a veteran ; twenty years ago, I 

 should have enjoyed nothing better than such com- 

 panions. One thing I would recommend, that for 

 woodcock shooting your dogs have plenty of white in 

 their colour, for unless such is the case, you will fre- 

 quently lose a point and shot by walking past your 

 dog without seeing him, an annoyance to yourself and 

 a disappointment to your setter. 



Before concluding, I would call the attention of 

 all good and true lovers of the dog and gun to a 

 practice that exists in Louisiana, and doubtless else- 

 where, of killing woodcock with poles at night in 

 the corn fields, with the assistance of a brilliant torch. 

 Like the noble salmon, the woodcock becomes fasci- 



