AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
97 
WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 
[Plate IX.] 
There is, perhaps, no sport, in this country, which 
occupies the attention of the shooter so much as that 
of hunting Woodcocks; and, as the season approaches 
which embraces this favourite amusement, much anxiety, 
preparation, and solicitude, are wasted, in anticipating 
the pleasure which abundance of this game produces, 
and, for weeks before this period arrives, the talents of 
all the gunsmiths are called in requisition by sports- 
men, to supply any deficiencies which may be found 
existing in their stock of accoutrements. This undue ea- 
gerness, however, sometimes leads to great vexation and 
disappointment, and proves to be premature ; for, like the 
instability of most pleasures, the prospect of good shooting 
is often obscured by the storms of a single night, and those 
places of favourite resort by gunners, which sometimes 
yield rich harvests to their perseverance, are frequently 
rendered birdless by one heavy rain. This contingency 
attending Woodcock shooting, deters many from pursuing 
it who are extremely fond of the sport, and who prize it 
as superior to all others, but which circumstance alone is 
sufficient to bring it beneath the level of partridge shoot- 
ing. In Europe, this bird is considered a great luxury, 
and their scarcity in England enhances their value con- 
siderably more in the eye of the sportsman, but seldom 
affords so much amusement as other species of game: 
they are, however, in this country, so plentiful, that the 
season for shooting them, if prudently observed, adds much 
to enjoyment, and constitutes an era of great importance 
in the sporting world. 
No laws regulating the season for shooting Woodcock 
have, we believe, ever been enforced, except by the State 
of New Jersey, which restricts it to that period between 
the first of July and February; although several cities have 
so far noticed this game as to prohibit its sale in their 
market places, except during the above period. Sports- 
men, however, in every State, respect the proper season 
for shooting this bird, and are generally confined to those 
months: but there are many, who do not bear even the 
semblance of sportsmen, so unprincipled as never to regard 
law, either natural, moral, or statute, and destroy this bird 
indiscriminately whenever it is to be met with, often em- 
bracing the season of incubation, when the bird is so tame 
as almost to be taken by the hand, as more easily sacrificed 
to their inhuman and unfeeling propensities. In connec- 
tion with the pleasures attending Woodcock shooting, there 
are many inconveniences and difficulties, which call into 
exercise all the energies of the sportsman. Commencing 
in the heat of summer, he is subject in his excursions to 
the scorching rays of the sun, and dampness and mud at- 
tends his every step, from which by the solary influence, 
often arises a damp vapour, almost, at times, suffocating, 
which enervates the system, and serves to create excessive 
fatigue; it thus becomes a season of toil, pain, and un- 
pleasant retrospection: when, if pursued during the only 
proper season, in the fall of the year, it would be one of 
the most delightful periods of enjoyment. 
This bird is known throughout the United States, under 
different names, as the snipe, big snipe, red-breasted snipe, 
and mud snipe, and, in some parts of the country, through 
ignorance, is not considered fit to eat, although they are 
generally held in the highest estimation as an article of 
luxury, and frequently command an exiravagant price ; it 
is in October and November, that the Woodcock is in the 
best state for the table, but impatience in the sportsman 
urges him to war against them, so soon as the law will per- 
mit it. The favourite places of resort for Woodcocks 
are low, marshy grounds, swamps, and meadows, with soft 
bottoms, where cattle have been grazing, although during 
wet seasons they seek higher land, most generally corn- 
fields, to seek their food in the soft ploughed ground. It 
is no difficult matter to ascertain the presence of these birds 
in particular places, as the earth will be found perforated 
with numbers of holes made by their bills, while searching 
for worms beneath the surface of the ground. 
Throughout the month of July, and part of August, the 
Woodcocks are to be found in most grounds of the above 
description, and in seasons of excessive drought, are very 
numerous on tide water creeks and shores of fresh water 
rivers — those extensive meadows in the interior of New 
Jersey, near to Atsion Furnace, and frequently in the 
marshy flats, overgrown with reeds: they were also found 
in quantities in the meadows bordering the Cohansey river, 
in the lower part of Jersey, in 1825, at which place three 
gentlemen, in the space of about two hours, on a very 
small spot, killed upwards of forty birds. But though 
the favourite places of resort for Woodcocks are in the re- 
gion of streams and muddy bottoms, yet, different from 
the snipe, they are averse to much water, and a heavy rain 
will disperse them over a wide extended country, and 
ground which sometimes produces abundance of this game, 
is found forsaken by them, the night succeeding a heavy rain. 
The Woodcocks, when found in meadow land, are easy 
birds to shoot, and require but an indifferent shot, and 
slight wounds to kill them, and are therefore sought after 
by young sportsmen in preference to other game; for, 
being exceeding sluggish in their movements, they afford 
excellent opportunities to the beginner to exercise himself 
in the science of shooting. When sprung from the ground, 
