24 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



through the fields, as the light is veered around so as 

 to cover the ground within its range, the woodcock can 

 be seen squatting in his feeding place. 



"The darker the night the better; a drizzly night 

 is the best of all. On starlight nights it is not easy 

 to get close enough to kill them with a long cane, which 

 the darkeys frequently use, or even to shoot them with 

 squib loads, but on dark, drizzly nights one can almost 

 catch them with the hands before they become accus- 

 tomed to the light, which temporarily dazzles them. 

 The birds are usually found in pairs unless one has 

 been killed and squatting from three to six feet apart, 

 and not infrequently, if the night be very dark, the 

 hunter can kill both before flight. 



"A muzzleloader is preferred on account of the 

 cheapness of the ammunition. The birds are rarely 

 ever shot at more than thirty feet and frequently under 

 ten feet. For this reason squib loads are used. An or- 

 dinary charge of black powder is divided into two 

 loads, a wad run down on it, and the charge of No. 8 

 shot is about what a man can hold between his thumb 

 and fore finger, say fifteen or twenty pellets; more 

 would tear the birds. 



"The woodcock rarely spends over sixty to seventy 

 days in Louisiana, but during this period many thou- 

 sands were killed before the enactment of prohibitory 

 laws, not only by the colored man, but by the whites 

 as well, in the manner mentioned. No doubt your 

 sportsmen critics will denounce the method, and, under 

 any circumstances other than those which actually exist 



