WOODCOCK SHOOTING 
“ As to the arrival, about October 15 to 25 we get a few birds, very 
few, but the first, these are generally the big chestnut coloured birds, and 
we think they are bred in England or Scotland. About November 1 to 
November 7 we usually get a nice sprinkling, say 25 per cent of our 
crop ; November 23 to November 29 we should get our best flight, 50 per 
cent, and for this we prefer S.E. wind, foggy weather, and morning moon. 
“ In 1910, three guns killed thirty-six woodcocks on November 26. 
After December 1 we get a few stragglers in, but I think these are coming 
to our coverts from the hedgerows and outsides. Still, in a dry autumn, or 
with unfavourable weather earlier in the season, we sometimes build up a 
nice stock between December 1 and December 12.1 have seen a few arrive 
in January, but this is not usual, and occurs only in severe winters, and 
these arrivals are usually noticed in the big woodlands. 
“ Breeding. An old history of Cornwall* gives an illustration of a young 
bird hatched from a woodcock’s egg ; the nest was found in a West Corn- 
wall parish, but I have never heard of any other nest at this end of the 
country. In the past summer we saw a bird once or twice in June or July, 
but I think it was a cripple that could not migrate. 
** Best time to shoot. We usually shoot about December 12, which I consider 
the best time. Some years we lose our birds after they have arrived 
owing to a dry November, or a very big storm, but this only occurs 
once in five years at the most. We watch the ‘ roding ’ of our wood- 
cock pretty closely through November and December, so know their 
numbers fairly well before we shoot. The largest number we ever saw 
roding in one evening at one place was December 7, 1907, when we saw 
twenty -nine. We have frequently heard the birds squeal when roding, and 
of course at other times ; 442 woodcock were killed in the Scilly Isles 
in 1878-9 — but they have never done much in a day there — thirty -nine 
being, I believe, their best. 
“ I know two instances of woodcock being killed at one shot in Cornwall, 
one by Mr W. F. Gordon Gregor, at Trewithan, in or about 1840 ; he fired 
at a ’cock alighting, and found two dead ones, the bird he aimed at was 
probably joining the other. Mr Gregor always used a single barrel gun, 
having lost one thumb. The other instance was Mr Christopher Popham, 
at Clowance ; he shot one ’cock and the other fell some five yards further 
on. 
* Bor lose 's Natural History of Cornwall, 1758, page 245, records a nest found in the neighbourhood of Penzance in 
the summer of 1755. There were two eggs, one being broken the other was put under a pigeon, and a young woodcock 
hatched out, which is figured on plate xxiv, fig. xii, page 239. 
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