CHAPTER XIII, 



WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 



HERE is, indeed, a stirring subject the pursuit of 

 at once the daintiest and most sporting of all our 

 feathered quarry. Elsewhere we shall deal, at some 

 length, with its natural history and social details 

 here we confine ourselves to the most approved 

 methods of finding and bagging this manna and fat- 

 ness of the woods. These savoury strangers the 

 woodcocks wherever they come from, arrive gene- 

 rally in the British Islands about the middle of 

 October. They then lodge principally abroad ; but 

 the first fall of snow drives them into the woods, and 

 in November they are to be met with in cover, what- 

 ever the nature of the weather. 



In covers not too high or thick, or where rides 

 have been cut through the well-grown timber, cock- 

 shooting with a team of small spaniels or cockers, is 

 the most picturesque and inspiriting of all trigger- 

 sporting. The precaution of having markers eligibly 



