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FOHEST ANt) STREAM 
[Oct. 17, 1903. 
Its habitat is generally in densely shaded nooks in 
out-of-the-way places, where man rarely enters, and 
where the soil is soft and moist, for in such places is its 
food obtained. The alder ruins, and slopes in the 
birches, and nooks in the woods where springs or rivu- 
lets or excess of moisture makes the ground soft, are 
its favorite haunts, and sometimes in certain sections 
it finds spots in the cornfields which are desirable feed- 
ing grounds, though haunts and feeding grounds are 
never plentiful. In Mississippi it is occasionally found 
in open sedge fields. Many places, which to the eye 
have every appearance of home for it, still have no 
birds in tlicm. 
The scarcity of" the bird, its beauty and the delicate 
flavor of its flesh, all serve to enhance its value, and 
its mystic life adds a charm to its pursuit which is dis- 
tinct from all others. 
The difTiciillies of woodcock shooting have been 
greatly exnggerated in every particular, particularly as 
concerns the extraordinary skill required by the 
shooter, and the still more extraordinary labor and con- 
sequent fatigue imposed on the dogs, the latter being 
an indispensable factor in the sport, if any success 
worth considering is sought. While intrinsically the 
sport possesses all the requirements of the highest de- 
gree of wing shooting, the writers on it have deemed it 
fitting that it be dressed in a glamour of romance, pre- 
sumably that a little knowledge might be presented in 
an elaboration of high colors which touched on the 
sky, the sunshine as it glinted through the alders, 
the beautiful color of the foliage, the balmy zephyrs 
laden with nature's perfumes, ad infinitum, all of which 
are present in all other kinds of shooting, or, indeed, 
present if there is no shooting at all. The shooting 
of woodcock is difficult, it is true, but not so extraor- 
dinary in its difficulty as to be distinctly special, and far 
from being so difficult as most shooters make it from 
injudicious selections of guns, loads, etc. 
Woodcock shooting is close shooting, the closest 
of any kind of shooting recognized as legitimate sport 
with the shotgun. While the woodcock is called a 
game bird, it is gentle and mild in its habits, with none 
of the pugnacity or extraordinary vitality possessed by 
members of the grouse family. The smallest of shot is 
sufficiently heavy to kill it, and the cylinder-bore gun 
is amply close enough for the ranges which one must 
accept in shooting it. The choke-bore of any kind is 
out of place in such extremely short ranges, and unfit 
to use on a bird so easily killed, though, strange to 
say, the use of it is not uncommon, owing, no doubt, to 
the fact that many men owning but one gun, must use 
it for all kinds of shooting, and in other instances to 
the further fact of thoughtlessness concerning the 
proper requirements of the sport. Short barrels, too, 
are desirable, the diflference in the handling of a 30- 
inch barrel and a 24-inch barrel in cover being far 
away in favor of the latter. 
Woodcock shooting is largely a matter of snap shoot- 
ing; therefore, a wider pattern at a much shorter dis- 
tance is a requisite if one is cultivating success instead 
of nursing a fad in respect to the use of choke-bore guns 
for all kinds of shooting, whether the guns be fitting or 
otherwise. In the shooting of quail, or chickens, or 
ruffed grouse— to a lesser degree with the latter— a cer- 
tain degre of deliberation and quick aim can be prac- 
ticed, but in woodcock shooting the opportunities for 
deliberation are the rare exception; hence the need of 
adopting an open gun to meet the requirements of 
quicker work and short ranges. Light loads and smaller 
shot can be used successfully, some noted shooters 
using dust shot exclusively. With a short, cylinder- 
bore gun— a true cylinder-bore, not the modified choke- 
bores, which are often called cylinder — such a pattern 
can be secured at 15 or 20 yards as will insure fair 
success to the average shot and the best of success to 
the good one. It might be said that such a gun and 
Inad are too murderous, and, indeed, they would be in 
the hands of a man who could shoot with any degree 
of precision if he could exercise deliberation, but as in 
the greater number of instances the shooter has but 
an instant in which to act, the results are far from be- 
ing so fatal as one might fancy them to be. Often 
there is but a momentary glimpse of a dusky shadow 
flitting through or across a small vista in the dense 
growth, and the shooter must fire then or not at all, 
unless he is pleased at a purposeless tumult, that being 
the sum total when he shoots and trusts to luck for the 
execution of his purposes. 
As in all other shooting, exoerience enables the 
sportsman to recognize the promising nooks for wood- 
cock, and the signs which denote its presence, they be- 
ing the ho-les made by it in boring in the ground for its 
food and other signs well known to the shooter, and 
which can only be recognized by experience. 
As to the labor and fatigue imposed on the dog while 
seeking for woodcock, they are largely an exaggera- 
tion. Wilson, in his work on the birds of North Amer- 
ica, specifically mentions the fatiguing efforts which 
the dog eiicounters in woodcock shooting, and men- 
tions that relays of dogs are necessary. As a matter 
of fact, the work of the dog in woodcock shooting is 
the easiest of all kinds of shooting. He must range 
close to the shooter, or at most not beyond a gun 
shot if he serve the best purpose in that kind of shoot- 
ing, and it is not at all essential or desirable that he 
work at high speed. It is essential, however, that he 
be intelligent and know thoroughly the best manner of 
working to the gun and assisting the shooter to get 
his shots in the manner to insure success. He should 
work diligently, but not hurriedly, and it is hardly neces- 
sary to add that the work should be done as silently 
as possible, though this also is true of all other kinds 
of shooting. 
The dog should be a good retriever, otherwise a 
large percentage of the birds will be lost, for many 
times it is as difficult to find the bird after it is killed 
as it is before. Dogs which run riot in this shooting 
can soon tire themselves out, particularly in summer 
shooting, when dogs are out of condition and the 
wcatlicr warm, the consequent fatigue from such over- 
exertion and unfit condition cannot be justly attributed 
to the difficulty of the sport. It is rather hard work 
for the shooter, particularly he of the North, where 
the quest must be made afoot and where the footing 
is difficult and insecure, though after all it is but little 
more difficult than any other shooting in whicli the 
shooter walks. 
As the dog often comes to a point in thick cover out 
of sight of the shooter, even though the point may be 
but a few steps away from him, a bell attached to the 
dog's collar has been found of great assistance in de- 
termining his whereabouts, and its silence indicates 
when he stops on point, matters very essential in con- 
ducting the sport. Not every dog is a good wood- 
cock dog. even though he may be excellent on quail, 
snipe, chickens, etc. Some dogs appear to dislike the 
work intensely, others refuse to recognize the bird at 
all. A few take to it very kindly and work to the 
gun from observation to a useful degree far above what 
could be established by the most careful training. The 
spaniel is but little used in the United States for wood- 
cock shooting or any other shooting, for that matter, 
though there is no doubt but what they could be made 
eminently useful in field sport. 
In Louisiana and other sections of the South, where 
the woodcock seek a clime more genial than that of a 
Northern winter, the conditions of shooting change 
almost entirely. In sections at certain times, generally 
in the last of December and the fore part of January, 
they may be found in great numbers, and a bag of 
twenty, thirty or forty in a day is not then considered 
remarkable. They frequent the switoh cane bottoms, or 
woods in the timbered prairie in which the heavy fall 
rains have softened the ground and where abundance 
of food can be found. Their stay in the South is very 
short, they starting North immediately on the lessen- 
ing of the winter cold, probably after a stay of about 
two or three or four weeks, their coming and going 
then being quite as silent and secret as in the North, 
They are there killed in great numbers both day and 
night by market shooters, and shipped to the home and 
distant markets. They have their choice feeding 
grounds even in that land of abundance, and skill, dili- 
gent effort and knowledge of habitat is quite as essen- 
tial to success in the Southern winter shooting as it is 
in the less bountiful shooting of the North in sum- 
mer and fall. B. Waters. 
A Bear Hunt. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I got this bear hunt at second hand ; that is, I did not 
hunt the bear m3'self or see him hunted, but from what 
I know of the country where he was hunted and the 
liunters who found the bear, or rather whom the bear 
found, I have no doubt that I have the story straight. 
The man who sent it to me did not expect it to appear 
in print (and it may not appear, either). 
The man and his boy who did the hunting — that part of 
it which the bear left for them to do — are glass workers, 
the man being a superintendent in a glass works in a 
small town above Pittsburg, while his boy Ed, who is 
fifteen years old, works in the factory under his father. 
The glass works all close down through the hottest 
part of the summer, generally about the last of June, 
and do not begin the next "fire" until the middle of 
September or later. The men make good wages when 
they do work, and a good many of them put in their 
vacation in camps, where they manage to spend a part of 
this money. Beer seems to be the most expensive item 
in the list of supplies in some, but not all the camps. 
I remember one where a regular bar was kept with a keg 
of beer on tap free to everyone who wanted it, whether 
he was a member of the club or not. 
There are several of these camps here in Lake Erie 
every summer, and some clubs go over to Canada to 
find a camp. Ed and his father — I put Ed first because 
he generally puts himself first wherever he is — ^were 
members of a club that had a camp near Erie a year ago 
this summer, but they did not like this place, and I told 
them that if I were hunting a camp out from Pittsburg 
I would not come so far as this to find it, while I had 
the whole of the Allegheny River to camp on, I had 
Irnveled more than they had and had seen a good many 
rivers, but the Allegheny would suit me well enough for 
a month or two to start with. If I wanted to make a 
year's camp of it then I might try the upjper Missouri 
now since the Indians up there have got to be good 
Indians. They were not any too good when I knew them. 
I had explored the Allegheny as far as Warren when 
a boy, and told them of a number of places on it where 
a camp could be made that would at least suit me. 
Ed had been trying to get the "old man," as he called ' 
him when the old man did not happen to be within ear- 
shot, to go to Canada next year. No, I told them, leave 
Canada to the Canucks; that is, for the present; we 
may want to annex it some day; these Canadians seem 
to think that we want it now, but we don't ; but I would 
not go as far as Canada to find a camp even if they gave 
me the ground I camped on and threw in the whole 
county besides. Go up the Allegheny next year and try it. 
"I'll do it," the "old man" said to me, and he did. 
Ed had been greatly interested in bears and Indians. 
I filled him up with stories of both. I had hunted both 
and had had the Indians hunt me several times as well. \ 
I do not know whether the bear ever hunted me or not; 
the first one I ever came in contact with seemed to have 
been hunting me much in the same manner as Ed's bear 
hunlcd him. I have never been able since to decide ex- 
actly wiiether I found that one or he found me. I do 
know, though, that he would have lived longer had we 
not found each other. 
I told them that when they were ready to camp this 
year to go by rail about as far up as Kittanning; then 
buy or hire a skit? (Ed proposed to steal one, but I 
warned him not to try it up there) ; then they could keep 
on up the river until they found a place to suit them, 
then camp, and when tired of this place go on again ; 
ihey would have both banks of the river clear up to 
Warren to camp on. 
"Ed wants bears and Indians ; he can find both up 
there; the bears, what are left of them, are still wild; 
the Indians are supposed to be civilized now. Those of 
them that I have met are civilized. They can drink \ 
whisky, eat gingerbread, chew tobacco, and swear in Eng- 1 
lish. What more is necessary?" 
I made them promise to send me an account of their 
camp, telling Ed to write it; but when I had got it I 
found that the "old man" had written it and not Ed. There 
are no doubt more, of fact and less of imagination in the 
account since it did come from the old man. Ed would ^ 
probably have killed his bear with the stock of his gun ; 
then, after he had closed in on him, would have killed 
him some more with a butcher knife. That is the wny 
the bear was generally killed in the valuable works that 1 
Ed carried in his traveling library. Those volumes had ' 
given him all the information he had ever got about < 
bears, Indians, and the Rocky Mountains until he met \ 
me; and some of the tales that I gave him were patterned ' 
after the ones he found in these boys' stories. He had 
asked me what would be the best gun to hunt the bear 
with, and I told him he did not need any; that if I were 
hunting him, knowing him as well as I do now, I would 
use a baseball bat on him. 
They left home on the 8th of July, taking their camp 
outfit, arms and fishing rods, and went to Kittanning. 
Here they bought a skiflf and such supplies as could not 
be got at every place on the river, and then started vip the , 
river to hunt a camp, rowing the skiff. There is not 1 
much current in the river except at a flood stage, but 
had I been going up it I should have used a sail ; it would 
have saved a good deal of rowing. 
They only went about ten miles the first day, and 
camped at Peart's Eddy, a shallow place in the river which 
we had to wade and drag our boat when I made the trip 
nearly fifty years ago ; but they found plenty of water 
here on the bar and crossed without any trouble. Next 
day keeping on they got across Gray's Eddy, a few miles 
below Red Bank, then going a mile or two further made 
the next camp. A creek came in here on the right hand 
side and they turned up it but had only got up a few 
hundred yards when a rapid stopped them and the water 
above was not deep enough to float the skiff. 
They landed and when Ed was looking for a pole long 
enough to use as a ridge pole for the tent, he found an 
old cabin a few yards back from the creek, and after 
examining it they concluded to use it, and if this country 
suited them make their home camp here. Ed thought 
that this country would not suit him, they had not got 
far enough up it yet to meet any bears, and the Indians 
were still away above this also. The old cabin, not used 
lately, had been built by a charcoal burner, they were 
afterwards told. It still had a good roof made of clap- 
boards, a stick chimney (one made of small logs and 
mud), and a door, but no window. The door of slabs 
still hung on wooden hinges, and two small bunks of 
slabs were the only furn'ture. They have preempted the 
cabin, he tells me, and mean to use it next year again, 
for the country did suit Ed after all. 
After getting their stuff into the cabin and eating din- 
ner, Ed was about to start to hunt up that bear right 
away, but his father told him that they had better first 
hunt up any neighbors there might be here and find out 
whether they were intruding or not, and make arrange- 
ments to get their bread and farm produce. They would 
not have to go many miles above here to find a store. 
Red Bank is at the lower end of Clarion county, and this 
country back here in Clarion and Armstrong counties is 
still much of it a wilderness. It is more or less a broken 
country with low hills, and is not thickly settled. Ed 
would be as likely to find his bear here as he would be to 
find him anywhere on the river. 
They found a farmhouse about a mile above the cabin 
near the head of the creek, and got all the information 
they wanted about the country, besides getting milk and 
vegetables here. Ed asked about the prospect of finding 
a bear. "You are right in the middle of the bear coun- 
try now," the farmer told him. "I have a bear here that 
I don't need. You may have him. Come and I will 
show you where you are likely to find him if you watch 
for him long enough. I have not time to do it or I would 
watch for him with an ax." 
He took them back to a cornfield adjoining a strip of 
timber. The timber he told them ran back here for 
several miles, and there were bear's tracks plain enough. 
The bear was in the habit of coming down through this 
timber and getting in through the fence to the corn. "I 
can't keep him out of it," the farmer told Ed. "If he 
can't get through the fence he climbs over it. He gen- 
erally comes late in the evening or after night. If he only 
took what he eats, he might have it, but he destroys ten 
times as much as he eats." 
