GO SHOOTING WILD FOWL. 



them, and Id these great thickets the birds lie close all day. When 

 night comes, however, they rise and seek the cultivated open lands, 

 where the soil is soft and loamy, and where they feed, as they do 

 here, on the worms that find their natural breeding places in such 

 sod. The outfit ot a fire-hunter before the war consisted of a gun, a 

 big pine-knot torch, and the strongest slave on the plantation, 

 bmce the war the slave has been left out of the outfit, but the tradi 

 tion is preserved by hirmg some muscular darkey to perform his 

 duties. The torch might more appropriately be called a pillar of 

 fire, for it is a fire, made of the fattest kind of pine-knots in a large 

 iron wickerwork cage, secured to one end of a stout pole twelve or 

 fifteen feet high, and carried aloft by the negro. It casts a bright 

 light over an area of several rods around. The hunter or hunters, 

 as soon as it is dark, proceed to the wood -cock ground. The torch 

 bearer lights his pine-knots and walks slowly along. The hunter 

 follows closely In the bright light he soon sees the lustrous, star 

 ing ejez of the wood-cock, disturbed in its feeding, fixed with a 

 startled look and apparent fascination on the glaring torch. Some 

 hunters will not wait for the bird to rise, but will kill it as it sits. 

 I he more scientific r^uuner waits till it riseo with its peculiar cry, 

 and brings it down by a quick shot. The shot Jias got to be quick, 

 too, for the bird :s zeeu but a second as ic ilasliGC up\/ard, and i:: then 

 lost in the darkness beyond the bonndarier: of the torch rr.ys To 

 bring down a wood-cock before it escapee in ihc darkness requires a 

 hunter that !raow"c his business. It ofteo lir.ppc:is that a score o2 

 birds will rise Bjt the same time and vv^hirr for an instant i:i the glare 

 of the torch, and co, ^^enerally- there are several Iiunters in a party, 

 and one evening's fire-hunting may result in tho parking of a hun- 

 dred birds or more." 



Snipe Shootinrjo 



Snipe are to be met vv'ith in low marshy "groimds. In spring they 

 disperse themselves to higher aiid more air^-^ situatioiarj« Snipe- 

 shooting affords excellent diversion 5 but those who attempt it 

 should be possessed of a strong constitution, and considerable forti- 

 tude and energy ; vv^ot and dirt must not be cared for, nor must tiie 

 coldness and severity of the "^/eather bo hoededc Snipe are difficult 

 to hit when on tho wing, ovv^ing to tho irregular twistings of their 

 flight; but this difficuhv is soon surmounted if the birds are allowed 



