128 FIELD SHOOTING. 



make a snap-shot at where intuition tells him the 

 woodcock ought to be. Besides this difficulty, the 

 upward flight is calculated to distract the aim, 

 even when the bird is not absolutely concealed 

 by the density of the foliage. Commonly it is 

 flip-flap of the wing, and the woodcock has gone 

 away, often not seen by the sportsman at all. 

 In some places it is practicable to send the dog 

 in to beat the thicket while you remain on the 

 edge to shoot as the cock fly. Where the brush 

 is short this may be done, and, if there a*e many 

 birds, the sport will be good. Three years ago 

 I had some nice shooting by following this me- 

 thod on Rock River, Illinois. When the cover is 

 large, and the timber and saplings are twenty feet 

 high, the above-mentioned plan will not work. 

 You must go in then with the dogs, and take 

 your chance of snap-shots. Later in the year the 

 woodcock is sometimes found in more open pieces 

 of timber — that is, in places where the under- 

 brush is not so very thick. But it is still a 

 pretty hard bird to shoot, for now it flies like 

 a bullet, and zigzags and twists about among 

 the close-standing stems, going for an opening 

 through which to make a straight flight. The 

 woodcock flushed in cover always goes for an 



