16 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
very distinct and remarkable instances of this fact, which have 
come under my own observation ; one with regard to the in¬ 
crease and spread of Quail, the others of Woodcock, into loca¬ 
lities where they were previously unknown. Some seventeen 
years ago, I visited Niagara Falls for the first time, and travelled 
westward so far as the upper waters of the Thames and 
the Chenail Ecartk in Canada West, shooting a little when oc¬ 
casion offered, and making many enquiries concerning the va¬ 
rieties of game, and the habits of those to be found in the prov¬ 
ince. At that time, I enjoyed some extremely good Snipe 
shooting, close to the village of Niagara, at the embouchure 
of the river into Lake Ontario ; and, in fact, I saw more birds, 
and those tamer, than in any other place where I have ever shot 
them. I had no dog with me, and was completely ignorant of 
the country ; but in such multitudes were the Snipe feeding in 
every fallow-field and maize stubble—it was in the spring, 
immediately on the breaking of the frost—that I made a very 
large bag, in the course of a very few hours. At that period, 
the Woodcock was just becoming known on the frontier; and 
a few birds were killed in the season ; they were, however, still 
extremely rare, and had been known, comparatively speaking, 
but a short time. Quail were utterly unknown, both in the 
Province and on the American side of the river. I had not 
journeyed many miles, ere I had outstripped the Woodcock; 
and I could gain no tidings of his existence beyond the Ouse, 
or Grand River of the Mohawks. At this moment, probably, 
the best Woodcock shooting on the continent is to be obtained 
in the islands situate at the western end of Lake Erie, in the 
Detroit River, and in Lake St. Clair. Quail are also becoming 
exceedingly plentiful throughout that region. 
In the same manner, in the Eastern States, until within the 
last six years, the Woodcock has been unknown on the Penob¬ 
scot River, although abundant in the vicinity of Portland and 
Casco Bay, and in the older settlements on the Kennebec. What 
renders it more evident, in the latter case, that it is the absence 
of civilization and not the severity of the climate, which 
