WOODCOCK SHOOTING 317 



what could be established by the most careful train- 

 ing. The spaniel is but little used in the United States 

 for woodcock shooting, or any other kind of shooting, 

 for that matter, though there is no doubt but they could 

 be made eminently useful in field sport. 



In Louisiana, and other sections of the South, where 

 the woodcock seeks a clime more genial than that of 

 a northern winter, the conditions of shooting change 

 almost entirely. In sections at certain times, gener- 

 ally in the last of December and the fore part of Janu- 

 ary, they may be found in great numbers, and a bag 

 of twenty, thirty or forty in a day is not then consid- 

 ered remarkable. They frequent the switch-cane bot- 

 toms, or woods in the timbered prairie, in which the 

 heavy fall rains have softened the ground, and where 

 abundance of food can be found. Their stay in the 

 South is very short, for they start North immediately 

 on the lessening of the winter cold after a stay of not 

 more than a few weeks their coming and going then 

 being quite as silent and secret as in the North. They 

 are then killed in great numbers, both day and night, 

 by market shooters, and shipped to the home and dis- 

 tant markets. They have their choice feeding grounds 

 even in that land of abundance, and skill, diligent ef- 

 fort and knowledge of habitat are quite as essential to 

 success in the southern winter shooting as in the less 

 bountiful shooting of the North in summer and fall. 



So scarce has the woodcock been for the last dozen 

 years that some young gunners have never seen one, 

 and know them only from books. Happily, for the 



