THE WOODCOCK. 183 



sportsman to exercise considerable dexterity in stepping from 

 tussock to tussock; otherwise he will often be doomed to a sud- 

 den plunge into the filthy oozes that surround him on every 

 side. The excessive heat of the weather is another strong objec- 

 tion to the shooting of woodcocks in the month of July, as the 

 temperature is often so oppressive that the birds will spoil in the 

 course of a few hours after being shot, and, in some instances, 

 even before leaving the field for the day. As for hoping to keep 

 the birds over a day or two, to carry home, such a thing is quite 

 impossible, and the sportsman, consequently, is forced to throw 

 them away sometimes when only a few hours old, if he cannot 

 procure ice to pack them in, which article, by-the-by, is not always 

 to be had in the country. 



We have noticed, with sentiments of sorrow, a very prevalent 

 but at the same time very unfortunate ambition on the part of 

 many of our sporting friends, to least of quantity rather than 

 quality of game killed. 



This braggart feeling should be at all times discouraged and 

 reprobated among gentlemen, as quantity is not by any means a 

 safe test for a superior shot, neither is it the just criterion of an 

 accomplished sportsman. But, on the other hand, quantity not 

 unfrequently goes to prove that he who claims this distinction has 

 been more eager, more greedy, more selfish, than his companion, and 

 perhaps less courteous and gentlemanly in the field than he should 

 have been. This foolish ambition as regards quantity is often dis- 

 played in its most deplorable form in the wanton and reckless de- 

 struction of young woodcocks, which, as before observed, are shot 

 by hundreds when too feeble to save themselves by flight, when too 

 young to afford suitable food for the table, and under circumstances, 

 oftentimes, when these desolators of our fields and forests know 

 full well that they can make no use of them. How mortifying, 

 how degrading, in the eyes of humanity, that such a cruel, reck- 

 less, and thoughtless propensity for the taking of life should exist 

 in our very midst, should be encouraged by the example of some 

 of those with whom we daily associate, and even be discovered 



