LIST. 37 



tion of their feeding grounds for cultivation. Accord- 

 ingly, small bags are the rule now after a cock- 

 shooting trip. In mild seasons the woodcocks re- 

 main with us until late in the month of Novem- 

 ber, but, should their feeding grounds be frozen for 

 two consecutive days they, suddenly depart south 

 and will not return till the spring. A live wood- 

 cock was picked up in the city on Beaver Hall hill, 

 December 16, 1880, which evidently had struck 

 against a telegraph wire in the way of its flight ; it 

 was kept alive for some time in a cage, and was ex- 

 hibited in Hall's restaurant on St. James street. An 

 account of this remarkable occurrence was published 

 in the " Canadian Sportsman and Naturalist" at the 

 time. I do not think many sportsmen have shot 

 woodcock when a depth of over half a foot of snow 

 covered the ground, and the bush was loaded down 

 with snow also. But such an experience happened 

 to Mr. David Denne and myself on the 9th of Octo- 

 ber, 1888, at L'Acadie, when the heaviest snowfall 

 ever known in the early autumn in this district oc- 

 curred on this date, but to our surprise we came 

 across the cock in the snow and succeeded in 

 bagging several under the greatest difficulties, 

 owing to the large masses of snow which fell off the 

 branches on us and our guns, as we passed through 

 the covers. The late Mr. David Wing, who was 

 with us, remarked to me that my friend must be a 

 hunter to find "cock" in such a snowfall. The 



