46 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



spaniel's spring, where the quickest snap-shot is required, 

 he must have a prophet's eye who can tell whether it be 

 fledgeling or full-grown bird. Avoid such uncertainty, 

 and do not put temptation in the sportsman' s path. 



There has always been a mystery connected with the 

 woodcock's disappearance during the moulting season, 

 and various theories have been advanced in explanation: 

 some claim that they remain in their breeding-grounds, 

 but can not be found, as they give no scent, and will not 

 flush; some, that they betake themselves to the corn- 

 fields, and can be found there in numbers; some, that 

 they fly to the high mountains and ridges, where no one 

 ever thinks of looking for them; while still others assert 

 that upon leaving their breeding-ground they migrate 

 farther north. Each and all seem to attribute this dis- 

 appearance to their moulting, without taking into con- 

 sideration the fact that there may be other causes. Do 

 not all birds moult? and why should these not disappear 

 as well, if the cause be only the casting off of an old 

 gown, and the taking on of a new one? 



After a careful comparison of the different years in 

 which I have studied the habits of these birds, and 

 recalling some unusually wet Augusts, when they seemed 

 to remain in numbers in their summer haunts, my con- 

 clusion is that their disappearance is not so much due to 

 their moulting, as to the effect that the season may have 

 upon their feeding-grounds. 



Woodcock are great gourmands, and the drought, 

 which usually comes about the time they begin to moult, 

 dries up and hardens the places where they have lived, 

 loved, and fed all the summer long, thus necessitating 

 a change, and so they scatter; and if, in certain sections. 

 they disappear, although their grounds are apparently 

 capable of furnishing food, it is only that appearances 

 are deceitful, and the food is not there in reality. The 



