> WOODCOCK TALK 295 



At a Boxing Day shooting-lunch the talk among the 



guns was upon the ways and wiles of woodcock. 



One spoke of his long bill, with its sensitive 



Wood- nerves, which tell the bird what he has found 



cock 



Talk when the bill forages among the dead leaves ; 



speculating as to whether he lived by his 

 powers of suction only. Another wondered if the eating 

 qualities of woodcock legs were really improved by 

 pulling out the sinews. The question arose : Is the 

 man who shoots a woodcock entitled to its pen-feathers, 

 or is the man who first finds and secures those delicate 

 trophies best entitled to stick them in the band of his 

 hat ? Woodcock provoked many controversies . Is there 

 any secret in the proper roasting of them ? Would the 

 law absolve a man who shot his fellow when shooting 

 'cock ? and would the fact that he shot his bird as 

 well as his man make any difference ? How many 

 people could swear to have seen the mother woodcock 

 carrying her young ; and exactly how does she carry 

 them ? How many of the home-bred birds leave us 

 in autumn ? What proportion of woodcock comes in 

 from abroad, and what is the difference between the 

 foreigners and the genuine Britishers ? In answer to 

 the last question, a suggestion was made that the 

 foreign birds were large and light in colour, but the 

 British birds small and dark. Around this point arose a 

 discussion, and the keeper was called in to give his 

 opinion. " It ain't nothin' at all to do with Englishmen 

 and foreigners," he said. " It be whether they be cocks 

 or hens, and 'tis the large light uns that be the hens." 



