172 COCK SHOOTING. 



for the wind really seems to influence the start- 

 ing of our welcome guests. Very few of the 

 birds breed in this country, and, indeed, there 

 is not much encouragement for them to do so, 

 as, whenever a nest is discovered by a game- 

 keeper it is brought at once to his master as a 

 curiosity. We often hear complaints of the 

 disappearance of certain fauna before our 

 triumphs in drainage and railways, but the fact 

 is that we offer a sort of premium for the de- 

 struction of everything of the kind unusual, 

 by giving notoriety to the stupid oaf who stalks 

 the last bittern or robs the nest of the over- 

 courageous woodcock. In France thousands 

 of woodcocks are caught in nets hung upon 

 trees, and this sort of poaching is pursued 

 occasionally in England on a much smaller 

 scale, by placing nets on the edges of woods on 

 the line of flight taken by the birds on their 

 way to the feeding grounds in the evening. 

 Ireland is, perhaps, par excellence, the country 

 for cock shooting, and this year, we learn, the 

 birds have been passing over in unusual num- 

 bers. We hear the same report of England 

 and Wales, so that the prospects of the season 



