HAUNTS OF THE TTOODCOCIv. 271 



habits of the quail, there is none about the woodcock. 

 Early in October, the pioneers of these birds begin to 

 be occasionally seen in the States of Louisiana, Mis- 

 sissippi, and Texas, and by the end of that month they 

 are plentiful. 



The bird is shorter and clumsier, and has a duller 

 plumage than the European woodcocks. 



Their favourite feeding grounds at night (for they 

 are nocturnal in their habits) are the cotton fields, 

 and in these they are often killed by the negroes in 

 large quantities. The negroes, carrying a torch held 

 high above their heads, are enabled to see them run- 

 ning down the cotfton rows, and, having a long bamboo 

 cane in their hand, tap them on the head, and kill 

 them. I have heard of as many as seventv beinc^ 

 procured on one plantation in Louisiana in a sino-le 

 night. They eat quite as well as the English bird, 

 and in young switch bamboo, sometimes give good sport 

 when you have a good dog to hustle them up. Their 

 flight is short, and is a curve up, and, after describing 

 a half-circle, down again. Owing to its retiring habits 

 in the daytime (for generally it buries itself in the 

 most tangled cane-brakes and thickest jungles), few, 

 comparatively, are killed throughout the Southern 

 States, and many people who are simply deer-hunters 

 may live a lifetime in the haunts of these birds, and be 

 all the while ignorant of their presence. 



The American Snipe {Scolopax Wilsonii). The 



