THE WOODCOCK,

ITS HABITS, HAUNTS, ETC.

BY FRANK FORESTER.

THE WOODCOCK, Scolopax Minor, as he is judiciously named by naturalists to distinguish him from his European brother Scolopax Rusticola, which is above one-third larger and heavier in the ratio of 16 to 9, the mud-snipe, blind-snipe, or big-headed snipe, as he is variously called in various parts of the country, may be termed an amphibious bird, and is nearly allied to the waders. He haunts woodland streams and swamps; sunny hill-sides covered with saplings, if contiguous to wet feeding-grounds; wide meadows interspersed with tufts of alders or willows; and at times, and in peculiar districts, open and grassy marshes, quite destitute of underwood or timber.

With us, of the Northern States, he is a summer bird of passage, as he may be termed with propriety; although he pays us his annual visit early in the spring,-sometimes, in open seasons, before the last moon of winter has waned her snowy round, and defers his departure until the very end of autumn.

In the Southern States, on the contrary, he is found only during the short and genial winter, quitting them altogether during the overpowering heats, which our water-loving friend finds unendurable.

In reply to a question which I propounded some years since, to the readers of the "American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine," (then published in New York,) "whether, in soft and sheltered situations of the most northern of the Southern States, the woodcock may not be found throughout the year?" I was informed by an anonymous correspondent, that among the higher valleys of the Apalachian chain, such is the case throughout the southern portion of that great ridge; and that in the northern parts of Virginia especially they are to be taken at all seasons of the year. For this fact, however, I cannot vouch on my own knowledge, and, indeed, I am somewhat doubtful of its correctness. I prefer, therefore, to consider it as every where migratory.

Woodcock arrive among us, in the Middle and Northern States, from Pennsylvania so far eastward as to the western counties of Maine, almost simultaneously, in February or March, according to the earliness and openness of the season, often before the snow is off the ground. They arrive paired already, and immediately set about the duties of incubation.

How long the process of incubation continues, I have not been able accurately to ascertain; but I have seen the old birds sitting so early as the 10th of March, yet never have seen young birds. able to fly earlier than the middle of May.

The ordinary number of a hatching is four birds, and if the first brood gets off early, the parents immediately proceed to a second incubation; the male bird in this case taking care of the first brood until the second gets off, when all associate together until after the moulting season, when all ties are dissolved, and they know thenceforth neither kindred nor kindness.

There is a mode of killing woodcock commonly practised in the Southern States, (in Louisiana, especially,) which is so singular, and so completely at variance with all our ideas of sporting at the North and East, that it deserves mention, and will, I doubt not, be interesting to many readers who may never have heard of such a process, which, unheard of, they never would imagine.

This process is termed fire-hunting; it is carried on, of course, at night, and arises from the habits of the bird in that section of the country, which differ wholly from its usages while here.

In Louisiana and Mississippi, where, chiefly, this mode of sporting prevails, the woodcock lies during the daytime entirely in the dense canebrakes and impenetrable swamps which intersect and divide the cultivated lands and rich plantations, and wherein it would be almost impossible, and altogether weary and unprofitable, to attempt to follow him; as he could hardly be killed on the wing in such covert as is there found, while the toil would be incomparably greater than the pleasure of the pursuit. No sooner is it dark, however, than out the woodcocks come by thousands, from their fastnesses, and pitching down on all sides in the old fields and maize stubbles, apply themselves to nibbling and boring in the soft rich loam for their succulent worm diet.

Hereupon the fire-hunt commences. With gun and game-bag, powder-flask and shot-pouch, and all appliances and means secundum artem, the sportsman sallies forth; but no silky-haired, high-strung, sagacious setter-no satin-skinned, rat-tailed, obedient pointer follows his master's heel. In lieu of Don or Sancho, an old, crafty, grizzly-pated, merry negro comes forth, equipped with the brazen vessel of a warming-pan, or the like instrument, set erect on a pole of some ten or twelve feet in length, and filled with light wood, pine knots, or such like bright-burning combustibles.

Arrived on the feeding-ground, a light is applied; the quick fuel sends out a broad, ruddy glare; and as the bearer slowly circumambulates the field, a circle of intense lustre is shed for ten yards around him, rendering every object more clearly visible than at noonday. The shooter walks close to the fire-bearer, on his right hand, and ever and anon, as the circular glare passes along over the surface of the ground, his eye detects the woodcock, crouching close to the earth, and gazing with its full, fascinated eye upon the strange illumination. The next instant, up it springs, dizzy and confused; and soaring upward toward the light, it is seen for a second, and then is lost in the surrounding darkness; but of that one quick second the sportsman takes advantage, and by a snap-shot cuts him down with a light charge -never killing a bird at above ten paces distant, and often bagging his hundred in a single evening's work.

This mode of cock-shooting arises, as it is evident, ex necessi tate rei, and may, for a while, be sufficiently exciting. It must, however, lack all that variety which is the great charm of our northern shooting-variety which arises from the working of the emulous, obedient, and well-trained dogs, in observing whose exquisite instinct, fine attitudes, and beautiful docility, me judice, lies half the pleasure of field sports; variety which, together with the lovely scenery, the brisk breezy air, and the exulting sense of personal independence and personal power, springing from these and from the glow of cheerful exercise, renders these sports, to active, energetic, and enthusiastic minds, the first of pleasures, and almost a necessary relief from the dull monotony of everyday existence.