32 UPLAKD SHOOTING. 



tlie woodcock, a bird once known, never to be forgot- 

 ten. 



It has, too, a claim upon the epicure as well as the 

 sportsman, and, from those days when the Pontine 

 marshes furnished woodcock in such numbers that the 

 Romans feasted upon their tongues until to-day, this 

 bird has been regarded as one of the daintiest morsels 

 ever tasted by man. 



Of woodcock we have but one variety, inhabiting 

 Eastern North America, and breeding in various sections 

 of the United States and Provinces, called by orinthol- 

 ogists PMlohela minor, to distinguish it in a scientific 

 manner from its cousin, the woodcock of Europe, which 

 differs from ours in shape of wings and general markings, 

 being less beautiful in coloring, and in size a third larger. 

 Wherever the woodcock may be found, it is a migratory 

 bird, although in the most southern of its breeding- 

 grounds its migrations are of short duration. It is 

 something of a Bohemian in its ways, bound to live well 

 for the day, or rather the night; no matter for the mor- 

 row; governed in its choice of home by no provincial laws, 

 but by the climate and the food which it loves so well; 

 fearing the cold, the sleet, and the snows, and altogether 

 being a lover of the sunny side of life. 



The woodcock of the Northern States is the woodcock 

 of the Southern — no difference in its markings, no differ- 

 ence in its size, nor in the flavor of its flesh. 



The bobolink of New England is the reed-bird of the 

 Pennsylvania marshes, the rice-bird of the South; its 

 food varies, and so does its flavor. 



The ruffed grouse in certain winter months feeds upon 

 the buds of the birch, and its flesh at such times is bitter 

 to the taste, and unfit for food. The canvas-back 

 searches for the wild celery, revels in its fragrance, and 

 then furnishes to the epicure a far more delicate viand 



