116 FEATHERED GAME 



be remembered that sportsmen are only hu- 

 man) — some sportsmen tell ns that they have 

 often shot woodcocks in the mountain bogs at 

 this season, when no birds could be found in 

 their usual haunts in the lowlands. Game laws 

 were then almost unheard of or at best only 

 honored in the breach by the larger body of the 

 shooting population, and men's consciences per- 

 mitted them to kill woodcocks in July and Au- 

 gust ! The birds wander back into their former 

 homes generally in time to assist in the proper 

 celebration of the opening day of the season, 

 though sometimes waiting for the first ''cold 

 snap" to stir them out. 



The more I hunt them the more firmly I am 

 convinced that our long-billed friends are 

 ''mighty onsartin." They may be found at 

 any time in the most unlikely and unheard-of 

 place. I frequently find them on the top of a 

 barren ledge whose only covering is low juni- 

 per bushes. I often cross this ridge in my par- 

 tridge shooting (it lies between two of my fav- 

 orite grouse patches), and seldom fails to dis- 

 turb at least one or two 'cocks here each time. 

 Probably they are only digesting their meals. 



But who is this gray-bearded, wild-looking 



