21G 
FRANR. ORESTER’s FIELD SPORTS. 
the sportsman is so fortunate as to find himself favored with 
that most delicious to the senses, and most lovely to the eye, of 
all weather, which we know as Indian Summer, at the full 
of the October moon, he may count himself almost certain 
of finding the coverts well stocked with Woodcock I have 
frequently acted on this indication myself, and, in spite of being 
warned by letters from the country that Cock had not come on, 
have set out from the city, relying on the combination of the 
purple haze with the full October moon, veiled in soft silver for 
the nonce, and have rarely been disappointed of good sport. 
In all other respects, the pursuit of Woodcock, the mode of 
hunting them, and the style of killing them, differ in nothing 
now from the methods to be used in summer. The birds are, 
of course, far stronger on the wing, as they are now full grown, 
and instead of dodging about in the bushes and dropping with¬ 
in twenty yards of the muzzle of a gun just discharged, will 
soar away over the tree tops, and sometimes fly half a mile at 
a stretch. 
The difficulty of killing them, is therefore increased, although 
the absence of the green leaf affords a fairer view of them, and 
the man who makes a large bag must depend more on snap 
shots than on fair chances over steady points. 
In this place it will not be improper to insert a slight notice 
and description of the mode generally adopted for the killing or 
Woodcock in Louisiana, Mississippi and the other Southwestern 
States, by what is termed “ Fire-liunting.” 
This practice is resorted to, in some degree, as a matter of 
necessity, owing to the fact that, in these regions which are the 
favorite winter home of the bird in question, he frequents 
during the day only the most impracticable cane-brakes and 
morasses, from which it is only by dint of the severest labor 
that he can be dislodged. 
Until very recently no other mode of shooting Woodcock 
was practised at all in these states, as it was regarded as im¬ 
possible to pursue them with any success during the day time 
in their gloomy and difficult fastnesses. Of late years, however, 
