258 USE OF THE DOG IN SHOOTING. 



Woodcock return year after year to the same wood to breed, and 

 if owners of grounds could or would prevent shooting birds too 

 early in the season, their care would be for their own benefit, as 

 well as for that of the public. 



Early morning and late afternoon are the times to be preferred 

 for summer shooting, though, as this bird feeds and lies upon the 

 same ground all day long, it may be pursued at any time. 



The only difficulty in shooting woodcock is in the thickness of 

 the covert in which they lie. In the summer the old birds rise 

 heavily and often drop close to the gun in the effort to cover their 

 young broods ; the young ones rise stupidly, and can be found 

 again within a score or two yards. In shooting in a thick covert, 

 one of the guns should be placed in an open spot where the bird 

 can be seen, as it rises, because the one whose point is made can 

 scarcely get a sight of the bird, at times unless he is very quick. 

 Under these circumstances it is best for the shooter to flush his 

 birds and not suffer the dog to do it ; in no case should he permit 

 his dog to go out of sight. 



The choice of ground, depends upon the season and various other 

 circumstances. In some places the birds lie in open meadows 

 among rushes, bogs, and water-plants,where there is no brush. They 

 are rarely found in woods. In other places they will be found in 

 brakes of alders where there is a muddy bottom, or in grassy 

 meadows where slow running brooks and swales exist, with 

 patches of willow and tall weeds about them. In the valleys of the 

 mountain ranges they haunt the sides of low meadows at the foot 

 of hills, and spots where streams emerge into the lowlands upon 

 bads of black oozy vegetable matter, covered with water plants. 

 A favorite feeding ground is in open woods, upon rich, black allu- 

 vial soil, covered with short bunchy grass with soft spots inter- 

 mingled, and where there is no undergrowth ; also in thick, red 

 maple swamps on flat lands adjacent to river banks which are 

 overflowed. In dry, hot weather, the cool, shady, moist ground 

 is most attractive to them. 



When woodcock are not to be found in one favorable place, they 

 may often be found in others which might be supposed to be unat- 



