42 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



To the rustic lad, and the farmer, upon whose land, 

 among the glades and swamps, they breed, they are 

 unseen, unknown, or, if seen, known only as "whistling 

 snipe," "timber doodles," or by some other such pro- 

 vincial name; and should one make an inquiry for wood- 

 cock, he would probably be directed to the old trees in 

 the orchard or upon the hill-top, but almost never to the 

 proper covers; for the farmer is not as familiar with these 

 bird-tenants of his freehold as with the quail, the ruffed 

 grouse, and many others of the feathered tribe who 

 encroach upon his domain. 



Sometimes in the early summer mornings, as he mows 

 the swale, they spring from before him, and are seen 

 only for an instant ere they drop farther down among the 

 low-grown willows, leaving him to wonder whether he 

 saw a bird or spirit; and I myself often wonder that it is 

 not the spirits of woodcock only that are seen, consider- 

 ing the warfare that has been waged upon the tribe for 

 so many years, in season and out of season north, 

 south, east, and west, from the rising to the setting of 

 the sun, and indeed from the setting to the rising again 

 by that execrable practice of fire-hunting practiced in 

 some sections of the South. Truly, their time of peace is 

 very limited. Permitted by law, in some States, to be 

 shot before they are fairly fledged, they know no safety 

 from that time on until they once more return to their 

 breeding-places, and for a few weeks out of the fifty-two 

 are granted a short respite during their nesting and 

 hatching. 



Summer cock-shooting must be everywhere abolished, 

 to save the tribe, already becoming scarce in many sec- 

 tions which formerly held them in great numbers. It is 

 true that, owing to the increase in population, large tracts 

 of swamps, rich with the best of soil, have been cleared, 

 drained, and reclaimed; and now the field-sparrow sings 



