NOVEMBER.-WOODCOCK SHOOTING.

BY RAMROD.

With the fall of the leaf comes woodcock shooting; and though by law the first of October is fixed for the commencement of pheasantshooting, little is done at that sport till November. Battues become general this month, and from now till Christmas the squire has his house full of company, which he entertains in a manner worthy of the

"Fine old English gentleman,

All of the olden time."

And if the yule log is not burnt, neither does the wassail-bowl go round, we hope the feelings of hospitality are as strong as they were in the days of our great-grandpapas; and we are led to believe such to be the case from the fact that our country gentlemen and aristocracy at the festive season,

"While they feast the great,
Do not forget the small."

For in no country is there so much charity shown as in England at that period of the year; when every heart should banish all feelings of animosity and entertain only those of goodwill to all.

The arrival of the woodcock is preceded by the red-wing—a bird which, though small, is most excellent to eat, especially after a little frost, and when they have fed on the berries of the hawthorn. On the water meadows in winter they may be seen in great numbers, and with them field-fares and thrushes, all of which are of the merulida or thrush tribe; they are difficult to be approached, but are quite worth powder and shot.

especially if the nights are This is called the woodcock

During the first full moon in November, foggy, woodcocks arrive in great numbers. moon for the above reason. Upon their arrival on the coast they are thin and weak, and may easily be taken, but until they have regained their flesh are hardly worth cating. In a few days, and so soon as they have recruited themselves, they move into the interior of the country, always taking their flights at night, and dropping in woods here and there as it suits their fancy. It is beyond doubt that they return year after year to the same spots; at least, such as have the luck to escape: and this has been proved by marking a woodcock and afterwards letting it loose, the bird being killed the following season in the wood where it was first captured. Woodcock-shooting has been well termed the "foxhunting of shooting"-of all sports it is the most exciting, and to those not fond of arm-chair amusements the most enjoyable.

The annoucement of the first appearance of the long bill is looked

for with anxiety by the true sportsman. In every district there is a covert in which year after year the woodcock first appears, and such places are watched and anxiously searched for the expected favourite; if keepers are employed, they are the first to bring the tidings, having in their morning's round discovered it on some well-known soak; and then what preparations are made to take the field! what diversity of opinions as to the best plan for circumventing the stranger!-not hospitable but flattering, though in this case the object of our solicitude would, no doubt, could it speak, say, Save me from my friends." Ah, these are moments well known to all sportsmen who have handled a gun— moments that cannot be forgotten. And as years are added to years, we love to dwell on such as are past, and vainly wish we could bring back things that were.

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I never shall forget the circumstance of my killing my first woodcock. It was during a hard frost that I was walking by the margin of a small brook in quest of wild ducks, when I perceived a woodcock on a stump close to the stream. It was, I think, the first I had ever seen alive-certainly the first since I was permitted to carry a gun; therefore my anxiety to distinguish myself by killing it was, of course, great as I had as yet killed nothing flying, I was fearful of allowing it to rise, in case I should miss it; therefore, I thought best to make sure by shooting it on the ground. I had no more idea than the man in the moon how far I should stand from the object when I fired; but being determined to bag my bird, and thinking with what triumph I should march home with my booty, I certainly did not give it much law; but, however, when I came to look for my friend the woodcock, I found it blown into a thousand bits. Alas! here were all my prospects blighted by my own impetuosity, and I was doomed not to be the fortunate killer of the first woodcock of the season, for having failed to produce my game I could lay no claim to the honour; but to have that honour just within grasp, and then to lose it, was indeed provoking.

Of late years, partly owing, I presume, to the extensive draining which has been going on in all parts of the kingdom, and partly to the fact that people now shoot so well that few are allowed to return from these shores, woodcocks have become comparatively scarce; and where one is found now a score used to be. In a covert I am acquainted with in Herefordshire, and in which I have often shot, the memory of many old sportsmen can easily recall the time when ten couple of cocks have been killed in that place in a day, and perhaps shots obtained at as many more. Now, that number cannot be killed in a season. It would scarcely be believed by the young sportsman of the present day, if he was to beat the wood in question, that such things could have been; but for the truth of what I have written I can vouch, having had it from undoubted authority.

In Wales the number killed in a season till within the last few years is incredible; and I have bought them at two shillings and half-a-crown the couple over and over again in Cardiganshire, (I speak now of formerly, and not of the present time,) and could get as many as I liked at that price. I resided once at Llandovery, in Carmarthenshire, and I there bought partridges at one shilling and sixpence the brace, and other game equally as cheap; but the cause of this was the difficulty of access to any market, which rendered the disposal of game precarious. Now the

F F

case is quite altered; a college has been established at Llandovery, which I have no doubt will have the effect of raising the prices of all things by increasing the demand.

"Seven o'clock, and not up! Whoever would have supposed that Ramrod would have chosen this day, of all days in the year, for turning sluggard? Come, get up!" added the speaker, who was my friend, and companion to be of the day.

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My good fellow," I replied, "if you invite a man who has been boxed up in the village to come and pay you a visit, give him a good dinner, splendid wine, pleasant society in the evening, with good music, and then make him top up with real Glenlivit, you must expect him to be rather lazy in the morning, and must make every allowance for him; but ring the bell, let me have my bath, and I will not long keep you waiting. When I parted from you in October, and you gave me a pressing invitation to come and have some woodcock shooting, I said I would take you at your word, and you see here I am: allons, I will be with you in a jiffy."

Nine was the usual breakfast hour at my friend's house; on this occasion the time was changed to half-past eight, as we were going in pursuit of a long bill, which had been seen the day before in a favourite covert. At that hour we were gathered round the table, doing justice to the good things set before us. Our party consisted of our host, his wife, her two sisters, and her brother; the latter just arrived from India-a first-rate shot, especially at a snipe.

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Faith," said our host, being the first to break silence, "this is a perfect morning for woodcocks, and I shall be greatly disappointed if we do not bring home two or three couple."

"Yes," I replied, "we must this morning, I think, have good sport; the birds will be on the high ground, as there is a heavy dew, and they dislike wet, always choosing to lie high and dry; and it is there we must look for them. It is an erroneous idea to suppose woodcocks are partial to wet and swampy spots, for they are only to be found in such places at feeding-time.

"I remember," observed our host, "once finding a wild duck's nest on the top of a hill, far away from any water. I then considered it a strange circumstance; but I have since heard of a similar case, a friend of mine having not long ago found a duck's nest in a wood on the sum mit of a high hill, near to which there was no water. I cannot imagine how the old duck could have got her young, when they were hatched, to the water, the distance to the nearest river being great."

"To return to the subject we are now most interested about," I said. "These few nights, that have been accompanied with a dense fog and the bright moon, must have brought a supply of long bills. I should very much like to have it satisfactorily explained to me why these birds always move on foggy nights and at the full moon; if it is the concealment the fog affords they like, why do they choose to move when the moon gives most light?"

"Don't know, I am sure," answered the host; "I will write to the Times on the subject. Heaven help the editor of that paper if he is obliged to read half the nonsense that is sent him in the shape of queries, complaints, and suggestions; but in case he does so, I will ask him if any of his readers can tell me why woodcocks choose to travel in foggy

weather. times."

For my own part I should imagine they see better at such

The good cheer, combined with the quaint and interesting conversation of our host, caused us to dwell too long over the breakfast-table; and it was not till the pretty little clock on the mantel-piece chimed forth its silvery notes that we became aware how fast the moments had slipped away. We now hastened to the kennel, from which was let loose the most perfect team of spaniels I ever beheld; they were all of one colour and size, bred from the same parents, both of which had been famous for nose. There were six that accompanied us, and their names all began with the letter P, viz., Pope, Pan, Prince, Pipe, Phil, and Phos. As I mentioned in a former paper, my friend was a first-rate sportsman; he understood the thing thoroughly, and consequently his dogs were first-rate. We had a retriever out with us this day, which I have no hesitation in saying was the most perfect animal of the kind ever possessed by any one. And here I will mention that there is no dog so valuable or so difficult to get as a good retriever; mind, I say a good retriever, for one half-broken is not worth having. Nine out of ten animals called retrievers would be much better placed if they found their way into a dog-cart, to draw nuts and oranges to the different fairs and races; but the owners of such dogs would not be very well pleased if I were to tell them this-the truth is not always palatable. The guns

But to return, not to our mutton, but our woodcocks. having been squibbed off to see all was right, we loaded for work, and proceeded to the covert we were to commence at; and which was, and had been for years, celebrated for woodcocks. There was one particular part, where some high trees grew, that I never beat without finding one at least; sometimes I have moved two or three there; and I remember once killing two successive double shots. But the finding the birds in numbers in any particular spot depends upon the weather, which, if wet, causes them to move to some ground, where they can lie dry; when it is fine they frequent places which at other periods would be too damp for them. The woodcock does not, as is erroneously supposed, live by suction; but the purpose for which it plunges its loug bill into the soaks is to disturb the worms upon which it feeds, and they thinking the mole is in pursuit of them immediately come to the surface.

Arrived at the covert we commenced action, and with a crash our little spaniels went into the thicket; in an instant the note of Pan was heard, and the next moment a cock pheasant rose with a loud whirr, and coming exactly over the spot where I stood, fell lifeless at my feet, my Westley Richards having done its duty. When the bird fell, every dog was quiet, having dropped to the gun. As soon as I had loaded and given the words all right, they were at work again as busily as before, and not a corner or nook escaped them; each bush and thicket was searched, and many a hare and rabbit which thought itself secure found to the contrary as its place of refuge was intruded upon by either Pipe or Pan, or one of the other dogs. Now an old hare would come cantering past, intending to dodge round a bush, and so avoid her enemies; then one would come crashing through the wood with one of the spaniels close at her heels, she having allowed it to come rather too near her before she bolted, and though the first step of the little dog was the nearest to her, still she ran it rather fine, for she had heard it said that

hares have been chopped in their forms by spaniels and terriers. Next would rise a hen pheasant, which we gallantly spared; not so her companion-the gentleman, which went into the bag; and what bird is more handsome than a full-grown cock pheasant? There is not one to be compared with it for splendour of plumage; I always think it too handsome to be destroyed, and it is almost with regret that I pull the trigger upon them; indeed, I would at any time much rather kill a snipe than a pheasant; and the bagging of one woodcock gives me more satisfaction than killing five brace of long tails. We had beat a great part of the covert, and we were now approaching the favoured spot; as we did so, each clutched his gun firmer, and looked to his priming to see it was in order. We felt we were now close upon the object of our search, if there was one in the wood, (and of that we had little doubt,) and that in a few moments the mottled favourite would be ours; that is to say, if we held the guns straight-a necessary course to insure good sport at all times. Quietly we advance, as the spaniels draw on before us, right well searching every spot, and our attendant beats such bushes as comes in his way.

"Look at Pipe, how he is feathering," cries my friend; cock about here somewhere, I warrant.

"there is a

"Keep your line," shouts his brother; "fair play's a jewel."

But the different remarks and replies are put a stop to by our man holloaing out the magic words Mark cock! Anxiously each endeavours to see farther than his neighbour, and wishes he had eyes of a double magnifying power, and a gun that will carry any distance; but all anxiety is put an end to by the report of a gun, which being at the extremity of the line we recognise to be that of our friend's brother-in-law; and so it proves, as we hear his voice in answer to our enquiries as to whether the shot had told.

"Yes, and a splendid bird too."

As is generally the case we gathered round the fortunate man as soon as he had loaded, to congratulate him on his luck, and to make an inspection of the first woodcock of the season.

“He is, indeed,” said our host, "a fine bird; and I do not recollect having ever seen a larger: but there are too sorts, the one large and the other very small. I have killed them not much bigger than a full snipe." "Yes," I replied; I killed one last year which was so small that I thought at first it was a snipe. Where was this bird found ?"

I moved him from beneath that holly-bush," answered our man ; and he lay so dead that I gave the bush two or three blows before he stirred."

"They will frequently lie like stones,' as the saying is, when they get comfortably fixed on a dry stub beneath the shade of a holly, of which they are particularly fond; and if you spring a cock you may be sure, if there is a holly tree in the covert, he will alight near to it. In Ireland, where they are famous for their cock-shooting, they take great pains to encourage the growth of hollies in their coverts; it makes an excellent underwood, and the only objection to it is the slowness with which it grows."

"Is it true," said my friend, "that they there will not allow any game to remain in such coverts as are reserved for woodcocks, but that they trap or wire every hare or rabbit that may be seen?"