130 FIELD SHOOTING. 



cago, but the brush is so thick in the swamps' in 

 summer and early fall that the shooting is diffi- 

 cult. There are a few on the Sangamon, but 

 only a few. On the bottoms and islands of the 

 upper Mississippi River, right down to St. Louis, 

 many woodcock may be found. The bottoms 

 and islands are rich alluvial mould, and the wood- 

 cock finds himself well placed in them for cover, 

 for food and breeding-places. The brush com- 

 monly grows down to the water's edge, and old 

 logs lie among the bushes. The woodcock also 

 frequents the thickets on the edges of the bayous 

 and sloughs, and, when the bottoms have been 

 overflowed, the birds use them as soon as the 

 water has receded. During the floods they shift 

 their places, and lie further from the rivers, 

 but in the same sort of ground as before. In 

 New York they were sometimes found in wet 

 corn-fields adjacent to cover, but I do not think 

 they ever are in the West. On the Illinois River, 

 about Pekin, Peoria, and Havana, there is fair 

 woodcock-shooting ; but the bird is scarce every- 

 where in the West, compared with other sorts 

 of game. Indeed, the woodcock is not only rela- 

 tively scarce in the West, but, as I think, abso- 

 lutely scarcer than in the Atlantic States. There 



