The sun., 1897-10-24
WAYS OF THE WO0DCOCK.
CONNECTICUT HUNTERS COMPLAIN
OF POOR SEASON.
They say Their New Gnmo law IL Simply
Raising Birds for New Workers TO shoot
Great woodceck Shooting In tho Past
rb,pru That Mako tho NoodcocL Uniauo,


Great woodceck shooting In tho Past
ThinEs That Make tho WoodcocL Unique.
HARTFORD, Oct. 23.-The new Connecticut
game law protected game much later than usual
this fall. Tho close season did not end until
Yesterday, and then for only two months
There is an abundance Of partridgcs and squir-
rcls in certain districts. but the whistle of tha
shy, handsome, and greatly priced woodcock is
conspicuous by its absence Tho woodcock
have made the most Of tho opportunity offered
by tho moonlight nights of this month and are
now well out of the State. Ezra Norton OF
Kent, an authority concerning game in his seq
ton OF tho State, says that the new law ought
never to have applied to woodcock, as the
fight birds have either gonc South or
moved down into tho shore towns along Long
Island Sound or over into New York state,
thus giving the hunters in those quarters an
advantage over their brothers in Connecticut.
The season for shooting woodcock in New
York State opens on Aug. 16 and in New Jer-
SOY on July A. hence fault is found with the
law by Connecticut hunters, who say that their
State is simply raising birds for New York
hunters to shoot. Tho law may be the means
of increasing the number OF woodcock in Com
nccticut, but several years will be required 70
determine this. The hunters in the shore towns
of Guilford, Clinton, and Madison say that the
few woodcock now taken there are not even OF
Connecticut raising, but are flight birds from
Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Norton is an old woodcock hunter He has
been shooting these birds for nearly fifty years
and he considers the woodcock as hard bird
to kill as a partridge while 1t has the merit OF
being even more rare. 'Thero wasn't much
known about woodcock in this state when
began shooting them" said he the other day.
"In the early fall of ls4l man named Cook,
who belonged in Hartford, created sensation
among Connecticut hunters by going down on
the Wcthcrsticld meadows with a dog and shoot
ing nncty-siX woodcock in one day. That was
%oodc%ck shooting. Things r, haye % & Shebnged sbnti
ing for woodcock in this State before that time.
man would as soon think Of throwing his pow.
wasting it in making snap shots. Why, as late
as along in the 50s spent few nights at
fall duck shooting, and while was there sew
erel woodcock. were dazzled by the big lantern
We cooked the woodcock and found them such
crazy, and when | got ashore looked up an old
hunter in Guilford by the name of Bassett who
as woodcock hunter. i asked him how ho
shot the birds, | don't expect you to believe
You @ bS that E' woodeock i~sF peRy
then; He said that he never pretended to Shoot
| flushed one OF the male birds it would shoot
skyward with its musical whistle. calling its
mate, and almost invariably would return in a
| few minutes and alght near its starting point.
| As soon as it alghted Basectt used TO improve
stood. He had no idea then, In nor ' had any OF
his neighbors; of wing shooting or of the proper
abonts of the bird after the first of July.
..Th The woodcock." continued Mr.. Norton.
| times as early as February, and always in
March. Consequently their 'broods are always
dainty that they won't eat woodcock unless
shot in July. Such people would live on boiled
| gold watches and toasted diamonds. | suppose,
II they could. Any woodcock that fies. no
matter what its age is a fl morscl for the big
nearly extcrmnated in this state, Of late years.
| twenty-five years ago could take You TO any
anywhere from four TO dozen birds in fore
! noon. But you cant do that now. ! have in
mind a certain hill near stony Creek where on
| one occasion scared up twenty-five Woodcock.
| But that was years ago, of course.
:. THE woodcock is one of the oldest of birds.
IT has one Of the sweetest whistles ever given
| to any bird. sound that once heard is never
FORGOTTEN Outside Of the pleasure of bagging
one OF these wary, beautiful creatures after Q
struggle through hriar and mud of perhaps half
an hour in the cndeavor TO get fair shot at it,
chief delights to the hunter, Thi- whistle is made
with the wings and not with the throat. as one
such power in the use OF its wings that the
I? noise Of its progress through the air has been
is made by rotary movement of the wings in
| their quick Hastings. and it is a sound much
ear as the tone falls on tn" quiet W autumnai @ air
than the hollow hpoming of the drumbeats Of
odd hne 9n MS sbo the wooacock ia
that it never turns its head to look behind it,
om ro ha1 he M dSs Of m nS so
necking on the part of the woodcock is unneces-
ssary; This makes it difficult for any one to get
such control of their flight that they can plunge
through the thickest cover OF swamp land that
ever grew nt cannon ball speed, and yet rarely
Then there is the trick the bird has of feed
Ing by night, making its flights by the full OF
hisides by day, There is scarcely n IN 1oniyht
season in the fall when fail to lind IA number
skirling the railroad, track below my house,
where they have fallen after flying headong
against the wires and being killed BY the shock.
| HJweyer strong their range of vision by day,
they do not seem to be able TO discover 50 small
an object rs IA telegraph wire in the moonlight.
tale evidence OF its presence which it lays before
the hunter whenever he enters upon it, iavorite
dence is the little auEer. ike holes in the the soft soft
soil where the bird has been boring with its
worms: And yet, the birds usually spend their
days day in II the uplanfs at ~ this season. Why
instead Is something have always wondered AT.
a ,hnt IN tt tie woodcockf oldest irat'" conclnd.
way it carries its young about when on the
| wing. You can never tell which way wood
rcctly over your head with a noise i;e Ihe buzz
| Of a young dynamo, flop into the distant
| may shoot straight up into the air and hang
there long enough 10 give you all the chance in
the world TO bring il down. A woOdCock's s
flight is as unccrtai as politics and even more
So; As to the carrying of their young there arc
| MI sorts OF trait ions among the gunncIs as to
the way they do it, hut all agree that il is very
| generally done. | have been told hy old hunt
crs that the mother wood"ock bears her young
in time of danger to n place Of safety by carry
| ing them on nor back, and presume you have
never heard anything different. Bui l havs
| On several different occasions have seen the
| mother woodCock carry Off the hedgng,
| nnd big bill, is he most foolish looking bird inn
| aginabic, by holding ii tightly clutchcd hctwecn
| her legs she iiics. ] have repeatedly seen
an old bird fly long distance with II ticdglng
| in this way, hut never with the chick on her
| back, | do not know of ANY othrr bird which