UPLAND SHOOTING. 
175 
a young downy, unfledged Woodcock, less than two inches 
long. 
Chance would carry a hurt bird by the tip of his wing, with¬ 
out ruffling a feather ; and though it will hardly be believed, I 
took the little fledgling from his mouth unharmed, and had the 
satisfaction of seeing him run away briskly, and hide himself 
behind a dock-leaf. 
That day we shot no more, nor indeed that summer; but 
before we left Orange county, I went again to the same brake 
with the old dog, but without a gun, and flushed what I presume 
to have been the male bird, which, by its simulated crippled 
flight, again drawing me away from the spot, convinced me that 
he was watching over his motherless little ones. 
Had I needed anything to convince me that Woodcock ought 
not to be shot in July, that scene would have convinced me; 
and since that day I have never ceased to advocate a change 
and simplification of our game laws, which should prohibit the 
killing of Woodcock until the first day of October ; and make 
that one day the end of close time for all game whatever. 
For the present, however, until the game laws shall be al¬ 
tered, and established on a more reasonable and more perma¬ 
nent footing, of which I flatter myself there is still a remote hope 
left to the true sportsman, there is nothing left but to make the 
best of it,—to take the field ourselves, with the 6 i tfoXXoi, and 
do our best at the slaughter; nor will I deny that there is much 
sport in it, though sport which, if men could be induced to fore¬ 
go it, would lead to such results in autumn, as we can now hardly 
imagine. 
This interesting little bird, being properly nocturnal in his 
habits, is rarely or never seen by day, unless by those who are 
especially in pursuit of him, and even by them he is found with 
difficulty, unless when hunted with well broke dogs. 
At nightfall, however, he may often be seen on the wing, 
darting athwart the gloom from the dry upland coverts, in 
which at many seasons he loves to lie, toward his wet feeding 
grounds. During the hours of darkness he is on the alert con- 
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