and the Maritime Provinces. 357 



after pitching that the best dogs will miss him, because then there is no 

 scent to guide them to their prey ; and at others, in a thick cover, he will 

 start up like an armed man, in full panoply of war-wings, from under one's 

 very feet, scaring a young hand into what is called " woodcock fever." 

 But then is the time for the hunter to shoot and take the risk of killing his 

 bird. But he must take care to shoot, if possible, before the bird rises to 

 the height of the tree's branches. Happy-go-lucky shots are the only ones 

 which can be made on these occasions. The rule is to shoot at the first 

 clear sight ; if none such happens, then try a snap-shot as he flies through 

 the wildering maze of foliage ; he will not be bewildered, whatever you 

 may be. Some men, and old hands too, will wait until he makes his angle 

 from the perpendicular, or they will shoot whilst he is describing the per- 

 pendicular, no matter how thick the obstructions ; but I think the first clear 

 sight is best, as being always surest. But do not give him too much time 

 under any circumstances. 



" I have said something before about woodcock knowingness ; and it 

 is quite true that at times they play with man's conceit, and mock his con- 

 clusions. For example, it is natural enough to suppose that birds scared 

 from their lairs, and rendered wild and mad with the roar of the hunter's 

 artillery, would never be so foolish as to return to that place, lest a fatal 

 calamity should befall them. But I have known these cunning birds to do 

 this very thing, and that, too, within an incredibly short time after they 

 were flushed. It is their habit, also, to stick to old localities ; and if the 

 sportsman find them in a particular spot to-day, he is pretty sure to find 

 them the next day in the same place unless somebody has been poaching 

 on his manor, and has killed and bagged them before he could get upon 

 the ground. 



" In the absence of markers, the hunter should not neglect the most 

 unlikely places, for he will often find where he least expects such good for- 

 tune. Perennial bushes, willows, spruces and the like, are covers which 

 the woodcock loves, and should never be slighted. At all times he is more 

 likely to be found in sunny slopes with a southern aspect than in a colder 

 habitat. He does not like frost, and soon leaves us for a warmer climate 

 when winter sets in, gradually getting nearer and nearer to the sea, occupy- 

 ing all the warm, secluded valleys in the depths of lonely woods en route 

 until the clock strikes, and he is off beyond our northern ken." 



A correspondent at Digby, N. S., in speaking of the close of the wood- 

 cock season at that place, says : 



" For many years past, I have watched the departure of our woodcock 

 at the close of the season (which means when the ground gets so frozen 

 and the springy places closed up with ice that their mandibles cannot get 

 through). They leave us for about five months for warmer localities, and 



