bag and half a dozen will furnish the day with 
all the sport one can wish for. The bird is not 
an easy one to capture, for it is mostly found 
where the trees and bushes are thickest, and you 
may flush it three or four times before you get 
a shot at it. You are in extremely good luck 
if you carry home fifty per cent, of the flushed 
birds, though you will always find them singly 
or in pairs, and they will generally rise well 
within range. 
There is a good deal of variety in the way of 
hunting woodcock. I knew a business man in 
Rome who had discovered that woodcock were 
very partial to the canefields which border the 
banks of the historical Marrana stream, just be¬ 
low the tomb of Cecilia Metella. He would go 
out there a couple of times a week in the early 
morning, run his dogs through the canes and 
be back to his office by nine o’clock with a 
bird or two and sometimes more. The Marrana 
is not a mile from one of the city gates. 
The sybaritic sportsman finds his paradise in 
the majestic pine woods along the swamps. Here 
the stately umbrella pine forms a great canopy 
over a tangle of low brush which rarely reaches 
one’s shoulder. In this thick, moist tangle the 
woodcock loves to lie, and with a couple of 
clever dogs it is an easy matter'to poke it out. 
The hunter follows the paths, and it is like 
shooting in the open. A flushed bird is seldom 
missed here unless one shoots too quick, for a 
woodcock presents a big target and flying 
along the brush, at the height of one’s shoulder, 
it comes naturally to the gun. 
Italians call hunting in the pinewoods “garden 
shooting,” and the best hunters look down upon 
it as tame. To them the real sport lies in 
breaking through the almost impenetrable 
forests, seeking their quarry where most men 
would hesitate to enter. This is either in the 
dense woods along the Mediterranean, or in 
the more accessible, but even more dense strips 
of woods that are called spalette, from spalla 
(shoulder) because situated on the slopes of the 
low hills. 
In these places it is not possible to follow one's 
dogs closely, so the scheme, common in some parts 
of this country, is used to know where the dogs 
are and what they are doing. To the collar of 
every one is fastened a miniature cowbell, each 
different in tone from the other. This does not 
frighten birds accustomed to lie among pastur¬ 
ing cattle, yet tells one where each of his dogs 
is. As long as the dog trots quietly, the only 
sound is a lazy tinkle, but let him pick up a 
scent and his quick, nervous movements are 
immediately carried to his master by the jerky 
sounds of the bell. Of course when the dog falls 
to a point all tinkling ceases, and one follows the 
direction in which the sound was last heard. 
While pointers and setters are used a good 
deal on woodcock, even in Italy, the conditions 
are such that they do not give the best results 
and most experts prefer the Italian bracco, a 
heavy, thick-coated pointer, or the spinone. a 
wired-haired dog, much resembling the French 
griffon. These breeds are more satisfactory be- 
Woodcock in Italy. 
The true sportsman is undoubtedly the one 
whose chief delight is the gathering of a 
moderate bag under circumstances which call 
into play all his knowledge and resources, as 
well as those of his dogs, and who would rather 
return home with a half dozen birds shot over 
a well trained animal and found by dint of 
hard work, than with a list of a hundred or 
more victims to his credit, knocked over in a 
drive in which marksmanship was the only 
1 necessary qualification to succeed. 
This prefaced, I may say, that to the true 
sportsman Italy will prove a veritable paradise. 
The indigenous fauna is not over well repre¬ 
sented, and preserves are scarce, but the mi¬ 
gratory birds which can be shot the year round 
offer opportunities for sport seldom met with 
elsewhere. And the best of it is that game can 
be found at the very gates of the large cities. 
Of course, with passage birds, the element of 
chance figures conspicuously in the size of one’s 
bag, and where you get fifty head one day you 
may pass almost empty-handed the next. But 
this very uncertainty allows hope to assume 
gigantic proportions and so really adds zest to 
the quest. 
Quail, snipe, woodcock, plover, wild pigeon, 
geese and all sorts of ducks are some of the 
varieties of the Italian’s ever changing regime, 
but among the lot it is the regal woodcock that 
the best sportsmen look upon as the choicest 
quarry to hunt. There is a fascination about 
it that one tries in vain to explain. Other birds 
are as beautiful and often more plentiful; the 
country one is taken into is not more rich in 
scenery, and tracking the woods is the hardest 
kind of work, yet while partridge and snipe and 
ducks and geese will be plentiful, hundreds of 
the keenest sportsmen will be beating the coun¬ 
try with splendid dogs in the hope of securing 
a few brace of the great birds. The reason is 
hard to find, but the fact is undeniable. 
In the early part of November the woodcock 
begins to descend from its northern haunts, 
where it has been building its nest and rearing 
its young. It makes its first appearance in the 
Alpine foothills and then gradually travels 
southward, pausing along the slopes of the 
Apennines if the conditions of the soil are good 
and the weather propitious. Let a day’s frost 
come on, though, and there is an immediate de¬ 
scent to the plains, when the wooded parts of 
the marshes that extend all along the western 
coast of the peninsula become heavily stocked. 
If the winter be mild, thereafter, the birds tarry 
here indefinitely, and not infrequently goo; 
shooting may be had uninterruptedly from 
November to March. But give a week or two 
of cold instead, and the last cock will disap¬ 
pear. Then the woods will be drawn blank day 
after day; in fact, until the northern flight, 
called by the Italians risalita, begins in Febru¬ 
ary. This risalita continues until late March, 
but is never as marked as the southern passage. 
Twenty to a gun is considered an excellent 
A TYPICAL CIOCIARA. 
The leather “chaps” are worn because of thorns and briers. 
SPINONE THOROUGHBRED. 
The type of dog most used in woodcock shooting in Italy. 
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