The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-11-11 00:00:00

COCK SHOOTING (Concluded. )—No. 11.

TI is a mortifying fact that the woodcock is by no
means met with in such plenty as formerly,consequently
it may be asked—what is the reason of this? It has been
said that the inhabitants, (of late years) of Sweden,Nor-
way, and Denmark, and other northern localities have
taken such • fancy to the eggs of this bird, that it has
occasioned a dearth of breed, &c., &c. ; and to this may
be ascribed the comparatively rareness of the woodcock
to times past. This does not seem to us • lucid reason.
As a rule, if birds are much disturbed, especially such
shy birds as woodcocks, they very soon take themeelves
away to impassable places, and with the instinct of
maternal keenness outwit the depredator upon their
very intimate interests. The few nests we have seen
of woodcock's-make have been singularly sheltered and
out of reach of humsc ken as • rule, therefore ; to
trespass upon the woodcock at breeding time, enough
to materially affect quantity, does not seem at all
reasonable. For us, too, as a matter of taste, we
incline to • nasty sort of impression about a woodcock's
egg. This is the only part of the cock we have an un-
pleasant sentiment about, and as we hold it • sort of
sporting sacrilege to murder a fox, so must we regard
in the same spirit the robber of the woodcock of her
eggs. A reason,perhaps, of the present scarceness of the
cock in comparison with the older day, is that guessers
(we cannot call every man that takes a gun in his hand
a sportsman) are much more plentiful than they Were.
Gunners exist everywhere. Where, fifty years ago, one
gun was employed, fifty are in full use now, and in
former days not one gunner in twenty was good at fly-
ing shots. Now it is (so keen are we become, and so
smart the age) that the mere schoolboy takes his snap-
shot with tolerable certainty—and some men are rarely
known to miss their mark—ripping down everything
they shoot at 1. ith almost unerring certainty. But the
greatest reason of all, we incline to think, of the scarce-
ness of the cock, is the decrease of cover, and extensive
draining operations which have been long going on in
lands particularly contiguous to extensive woodland
and cover. Where are our vast forests, which used to
afford shelter and food, and which were In certain parts
impassable, and therefore safe as an asylum? These
forests are,for the most part,gone with other old things
which have made place for new, not to our injury as a
nation certainly. The forest-land of yore hes yielded to
the axe, and corn now grows where woodcocks used to
harbour. Will woodcocks remain altogether unsheltered!
They may stay, but the spots they sought for are
covered with grain; the slops they fed on are drained;
and to them desolation spreads over the land, and
therefore many of them, after a short stay, bid adieu to
these, to them unhospitable shores, and return to
their former home (bleak and cold as it is) never more
to visit us. Woodcocks are not the pioneers of pro-
gress certainly, and this is why we are disposed to
believe they are now so very rare in England in their
season to former times, when progress may have been
pictured as floundering in a bog with a nightcap on,
like many reasoning animals (so called) in their season
of unreason. Oh! that {season of unreason :
" Where you, and we, and all of us fall down ;
And staring folly triumphs over us."

Bassos of unreason ray you! Yee, we all have it. The
well-reasoned, the beat of us, rather than the cunning
and crafty. On we go—up, up, up; on we go—down,
down, down. Deport us, if we know, if we are not
more silly, more absurd, more unlike what we ought to
be this year, than we were the last. With women it's
crinoline, and the accessories, the vanities, and wild-
neasee to whieh it leads. To men the effect of it, with
other go-a-head crechete springing out of the reckless-
ness of our bastard coubins across the Atlantic. Now-a-
day almost every man, with nothing to spare of his
banking account, thinks himself a cock in his own esti-
mation; has his mining broker and the like, and studies
the stock-market, or the tear influence; and envying
the buns, makes a butt at a venture. The reasoning
world is fearfully unsettled; no wonder real cocks are
scarce. Now to business. One friend, if be suspects
the author of these sporting fancies, will understand us.
Is the woodcock a solitary bird ?—we are not playing
with words now. He likes room, but when left alone
we incline to the idea that he likes company also if the
cover has not been much disturbed. If the sportsman
finds one be is likely to find more. Cocks are often
found together. Removal is frequently forced on a
particular bird that has been so long domeatioated to
one spot as to be actually known to a sensible keeper or
woodsman. Among the habits of the cock, essential to
the sportsman to know, one is that although he may be
flushed, he seldom voluntarily flies in the daytime, but
more frequently remains in the recesses of the densest
part of the cover, looking out, however, as wel AO his
purblind eyes will let him, and scenting his food as
well as his exquisite olfactory organs will assist him in
doing. If the sportsman—we drop the gunners—now
drops unexpectedly on him, and flushes him, should a
straightforward opening present itself, let him take his
time, for he will skim away horizontally, and it Will be
his own fault if he does not bring hie bird to bag. But
the difficulty to all,except the experienced cock shooter,
is when the bird, for want of an horizontal passage, by
reason of crossing branches and thick foliage, is forced
to rise perpendicularly, which he does, when so forced.
with much ado. Now is the time to bag him in this
confused state of things. At this moment the native
instinct of the bird is brought into frill play—he is
awake. Difficulties to encounter sharpen his intellect,
and the man that picks him up does it with a grsee,which
says it was well done. He feels the luxury of bagging
a cock well killed. In this feeling is more than half
the enjoyment of the true sportsman. The state of the
weather should be greatly considered in prosecuting
this sport. No birds open to English sport are more
influenced by weather than those under survey. Some-
times we hear men say we had a good day in such and
such a cover—let us try it again. You go elate with
promise, you scarcely flush &bird. How is this? Why,
the cover is open to the south-west, and a stormy wind
has been blowing from this quarter of late. You pass
on to the other side of the hill, where a large copse,
with thick nnderwood, shelters all that rest in it, and
the old acquaintances of the other day are there found,
not high and dry, but In quiet, lieu, and somewhat
deep and moist and plashy spots. Cocks do not like
storms. They like quiet, like all sleepy folk; they are
the very children of quiet, more than one can say of
the human species of cocks ; and they shift themselves
from one cover to another, acoording to its lee or its
windward bearing. Good men at other birds are not
always good cook shots. Cocking spaniels are the best
dogs 'for cook shooting, and with them the sport is
supreme to a keen sportsman. Whilst earnest after
cook, even if a pheasant is flushed, don't shoot at him.
It unsteadies good dogs; they know their work, but if
you teach them bad example, don't blame them if they
follow it. If a cook is flushed, don't suppose he goes to
a pitch on what may be thought his feeding ground.
On the contrary, as though done purposely to avoid
raising suspicion, you will find he has grounded on a
dry, but thickly-wooded spot, frequently at the root of
• bong, or at the base of briar stems. The junior sports-
man WM do well to bear in mind that • week or two
previous to their departure in the spring, cocks are
often found In pairs, whioh will afford him a doable

advantage. If, however, he be very sensitive (we have
not found many such in these parts we must own) the
little piping love-note—nature in her May-day—which
each makes to the other as they Ay along, should cer-
tainly arrest his hand. We should honour him for his
sensibility—all things in eeason, even bird murder.
Would that our Yankee friends understood this senti-
tnent ; but let hint not whisper the disgraceful fact of
having been gentle to any sportsman west of the metro-
polis of England if he would avoid ridicule. We need
hardly hint to the afternoon or evening shooter in the
woods, that at such times the birds are on the feed, or
road ing , as it is styled in sporting technicality ; and
consequently, if there are any about, they are DOW to
be met with in the mosses, edges of springs, and bogs.
But with an individual impulse of generosity, we should '
say spare them, and you will not regret—
(and you are intelligent,)—the having done so
in a future. Cocks take their mates to foreign
parts, like their human persecutor. Suppose an indis-
criminate slaughter took place yearly on our social
ground, how should we be placed ?—a problem worth
a little consideration, considering the prat and COWL
We give our readers enough to think of for a week at
least.