the cocks behind. As a proof of this, I should mention that Read and his brother, some years ago, in Poole Harbour, bagged in one night, about the beginning of March, forty-four wigeon; and among the whole number there were but two hens! The wigeon, for coast night shooting, is like the fox for hunting-it shows the finest sport of anything in Great Britain. We shall therefore, hereafter, make the pursuit of this fowl one of our leading subjects.

WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticola-La bécasse.

Although many sportsmen consider that there are two distinct kinds of woodcocks, and Latham describes three, yet they are more to be considered as mere varieties of this bird, than any species that can be separately distinguished from it.

The feather of the woodcock which is so acceptable to miniature painters, is that very small one under the outside quill of each wing: to be sure of finding which, draw out the extreme feather of the wing, and this little one will then appear conspicuous from its sharp white point.

To prove that woodcocks, on having migrated into this country, will repair to the same haunts for a succession of winters, I shall mention a circumstance, not as having pilfered it from Mr. Bewick or Mr. Daniel, but because it was related to me by the late Mr. Pleydell himself, when I was at Whatcombe House, where the bird is now preserved. In Clenston Wood (a covert belonging to the above place, in Dorsetshire), a woodcock was taken alive in one of the rabbit nets, in the month of February, 1798. Mr. Pleydell, after having a piece of brass marked, and put round its left leg, allowed the bird to be set at liberty; and in the month of December following, he shot this woodcock, in the very same coppice where it had been first caught by his gamekeeper.

Although it is here wished to abstain from all anecdotes that may not

be considered of some little use in the way of information, yet, while on the subject of woodcocks, I shall take the liberty of mentioning one circumstance, that occurred to myself, on the 25th of January, 1810. It was, soon after, very correctly stated in a newspaper; but, no wonder, considered by many as an absurd and improbable assertion; and for this reason I shall, in quoting the paragraph here, add, that the circumstance took place in the presence of the Rev. W. Nourse and two other gentlemen. "A few days ago, a woodcock flew up the lawn, and dropped close before Longparish House, in Hampshire; and was shot from the window, by Captain Hawker, who, having been wounded in Spain, was there confined to his room. What makes the circumstance more remarkable is, that it happened in a country where it is very rare to see three of these birds in a season; and that a friend of his had laid a bet he would be well enough to shoot a cock before the winter was over.”

TO PRESERVE AND CHOOSE BIRDS,
&c. &c.

To distinguish specifically the foregoing birds, I refer my readers to Bewick; presuming, as I have repeatedly hinted, that no one who has the least interest in shooting, either as a sportsman or a naturalist, could willingly be without a copy of this very superior work.*

If you shoot a curious bird, and have not the means of getting it stuffed while fresh, you may preserve the skin of it for many months by putting therein dry tow and powdered ginger. May and June are the worst months for the moth; and, just then, camphor is a good addition. But for MOTH IN EVERY STATE, the never-failing, though poisonous REMEDY is, CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE dissolved in

* Mr. Yarrell's splendid work on Ornithology contains many things that were unknown in the days of Bewick.

SPIRITS of wine. To skin a bird, open him, either on one side or down the back.

I have, as proposed at the beginning, marked only those of the broad-billed birds which are fit for the table; and this has been done as a caution against the imposition of market-men and poulterers, who, for instance, would have little hesitation in serving you with a couple of grey geese or burrough ducks, by way of a "delicate bottom dish for your second course."

Although it is not meant to dwell here on a subject which more properly belongs to a cookery book, yet it would be very hard not to have some consideration for many, who would rather see one bird roasted and well frothed up on a table than ten thousand springing from a stubble, or feeding under the moon. Let it therefore be observed, that in choosing birds you cannot be guided better than by selecting those which, of their kind, are the heaviest in weight and the least beautiful in plumage.

Young birds may be distinguished by the softness of their quills, which in older ones will be hard and white. A criterion for partridges and grouse is to hold them up by the lower bill, which in the young ones is soft, and will immediately bend. The females are, in general, preferable to the males: they are more juicy, and seldom so tough. For example, a hen pheasant* or a duck is to be preferred to a cock pheasant or a mallard. The old pheasants may be distinguished by the length and sharpness of their spurs, which, in the younger ones, are short and blunt. Old partridges are always to be known, during

* Provided it is not a very dark-coloured one, which would denote its being an old barren hen. Such birds, by the way, should always be destroyed as vermin, because they take to sucking the eggs of the others.

the early part of the season, by their legs being of a pale blue, instead of a yellowish brown; so that, when a Londoner receives his brace of blue-legged birds in September, he should immediately snap their legs, and draw out the sinews by means of pulling off the feet, instead of leaving them to torment him, like so many strings, when he would be wishing to enjoy his repast. This remedy of making the leg tender removes the objection to old birds, provided the weather will admit of their being sufficiently kept; and indeed they are then often preferable, from having a higher flavour.

If birds are overkept, their legs will be dry, their eyes much sunk, and the vent will become soft and somewhat discoloured. The first place to ascertain if they are beginning to be high, is the inside of their bills, where it is not amiss to put some heather, straw, or spice, if you want them to keep for any length of time. Birds that have fallen in the water, or have not had time to get cold, should never be packed like others, but sent openly, and dressed as soon as possible. Partridges are often spoiled in September by being put to ferment in a large bag or pannier, which is carried by men on horseback. They should never be bagged till they are cold: and in the meanwhile they should be fixed by the head in the modern "game carrier," which any gunmaker will supply.

Sportsmen are often heartily abused by their acquaintance (I cannot bring myself to hackney the word friends quite so fluently as I ought to do) for sending them "tough and good-for-nothing game," while all the blame should in many instances rest with themselves, or their pudding-headed cook, who, may be, dresses an old pheasant or hare the very day after it was killed, or perhaps, while

engrossed in a story or argument, leaves it to roast away, till there remains neither juice nor flavour.

All game, &c. should be kept till properly tender; or, if wanted in a hurry, it may be picked, wrapped up in a cloth, and thus buried in the earth for a few hours before it is dressed. This is the custom abroad, where I have supped on wildfowl, perfectly tender, that were killed since an early dinner on the same day.

Birds that are dressed so soon after being killed as scarcely to have become cold, are more tender than if put by for a night and afterwards not kept long enough. On the other hand, if you want them kept a very long time, for any particular purpose, powdered charcoal (for game, venison, or anything) is the best recipe that I have yet been able to procure.

P.S. When I wrote this, I had quite forgotten to mention also chloride of lime. But if you have an icehouse, put your game there, and you want no further prescriptions.

Keep your game in a safe, or a well-secured larder, to avoid flies: and to get rid of rats, you have only to leave out, for their supper, a red herring, which you must first split open, and then occasionally heat before the fire: while you put over and into it about as much strychnine as would lie on a fourpenny-piece.

With regard to dressing birds, there are so many various methods, for which every cook or epicure has his favourite receipt, that it would be absurd to enter on the subject; but as so many fail in adapting their sauces to wildfowl, I shall take the liberty of giving one that has been preferred to about fifty others; and was, at one time, not to be got without the fee of a guinea.