120 FEATHERED GAME 



rels as they come up and effectually blocking 

 any further proceedings until too late. Often 

 the birds are trotting comfortably about in a 

 growth of alders where a dog can scarcely 

 penetrate, much less a sportsman do good work. 

 In such places, before the frosts have taken the 

 summer's heat from the still air of the woods, 

 woodcocking is likely to be very warm business, 

 but when the colder weather has driven them 

 from their summer homes in the bogs of Labra- 

 dor and the bracing northwest winds come down 

 with their promise of more cold to follow, there 

 are few shooting trips pleasanter than a day in 

 the woodcock covers. Many a gray-headed 

 veteran follows the sport as eagerly now as he 

 did thirty, aye, forty years agone, when he made 

 his first essay. I call to mind one poor fellow 

 who went out for just one more try at the birds 

 — he was seventy-one — and his summons came 

 to him alone in the woods where next day they 

 found him peacefully asleep. He had had good 

 luck, his game-bag was full of woodcocks, and 

 his face was as happy as a child's. 



Probably woodcock shooting is the most popu- 

 lar sport with the gun which is followed in New 

 England, yet why it should rank before grouse- 



