WOODCOCK -SHOOTING. 285 
woodcock-shooting in July will probably prevail, while 
woodeock can be found to shoot. 
The early morning and the latter afternoon, are, so far 
as comfort both of dog and man prescribes, the preferable 
time of day for pursuing this sport; though in other 
respects, as the woodcock, unlike the quail and ruffed 
grouse, feeds and lies up for rest on the same ground, and 
in moist shadowy woodlands is more or less on the move, 
and to be found all day long, it isa matter of no conse- 
quence at what hour they are hunted. 
Than a July woodcock, when he is first flushed over 
dogs, there is no easier bird in the world to kill, the only 
possible difficulty arising from the thick coverts in which 
he often lies, and the fulness of the summer verdure. 
The old birds flap up lazily, hovering their half-grown 
broods, and, unwilling to desert them, will often drop again 
within twenty feet of the muzzle of a gun which has just 
been discharged at them; and the young rise like owls, 
often fly almost into the shooter’s face, so that they might 
be knocked down with the gun, and from pure inability to 
sustain a long flight, generally can be found again if missed 
within thirty yards. It is not once in twenty times that 
they will quit the covert in which they are bred, and fly 
across the open to a neighboring woodland. 
When they lie in thick covert, it is well, as soon as the 
dog points, that one of the shooters should select an open 
spot or glade, where he can command the bird when he 
rises; as it ismore than probable that he, whose point it is, 
will hardly get a shot at the bird, unless he be a very 
quick workman indeed in thick covert. There will be no 
