Woodcock
Shooting
By Edmund
W. Davis. Wilderness Adventures
Press, Inc., 2001, 165 pages, $50.00
hardcover.
Nearly a century
ago, Edmund Davis, an ardent woodcock
hunter blessed with a substantial
inheritance and an Edwardian devotion
to upland gunning, privately printed
a scant 100 copies of his book, Woodcock
Shooting. Long since out of print
and quite rare, Woodcock Shooting
has been made available to a new generation
of wingshooters thanks to a special
edition issued by Wilderness Adventures
Press.
Woodcock Shooting is that rarest form of sporting book—a
“how to” so interspersed
with engrossing stories that useful
information is conveyed to the reader
in an eloquent literary fashion best
suited for an enjoyable fireside evening.
With chapters, among others, focusing
upon “The Birds,” The
Dogs,” “The Gun,”
“Shooting the Birds,”
“Togs and Covers,” “Midday
Meal,” “The Homeward Drive,”
and “Serving the Bird,” Davis has pleasingly captured the
essence of woodcock hunting in a slim,
elegant volume. Finely presented in
its slipcase graced with Brett James
Smith artwork, containing an introduction
by George Bird Evans, and sprinkled
throughout with Smith etchings, this
classic volume belongs on the shelf
of every bird hunter.
A true love of Nature
fills Davis’ writing, and is
powerfully expressed. Davis writes
in the slightly stilted fashion of
his day, interspersing lines of poetry
throughout the pages, and hinting
at the privileged shooting life enjoyed
by scions of the Gilded Age. However,
far from evidencing a mindset as a
stuffy, self-absorbed patrician, Davis
emotively describes the conflicting
feelings upland hunters everywhere
exhibit about killing what they treasure.
Davis readily admits to little experience
with the Southern range of woodcock,
gleaning most of his expertise from
years of hunting in New Brunswick.
The first chapter, “The Birds,” portrays
the arriving woodcock as the herald
of Spring, and Davis provides the
reader with basic details concerning
the migration and courtship of the
hearty travelers. Davis wisely introduces
his subject matter at its most basic
level, bringing the hunter into the
habitat of his quarry and providing
insight into the necessary foodstuffs.
Interestingly enough, this first chapter
is also where Davis falls off his
horse, so to speak, with a foray into
the folklore surrounding woodcock.
The ancient tales that the female
woodcock carries its chicks about
in its claws, or even atop its back,
and that woodcock self-treat wounds
and broken bones with clay and feather
daubed splints are relayed, although
Davis largely admits he has never
seen definitive proof of such acts.
Davis redeems himself
in following chapters, with basic
discussions of the woodcock guns of
his day, suggested bird dogs for woodcock,
and a tutorial on shooting methodologies
and appropriate clothing for both
a gentlemanly shoot, and the backwoods
briar patch. Journal entries recounting
daily game statistics, and technological
evolutions since Davis’ day,
are the only indicators to the modern
gunner that Woodcock Shooting
was written in a bygone era.
Perhaps the most
endearing aspect of Woodcock Shooting lies in Davis’ intriguing chapters
centering upon “The Midday Meal”
and “The Homeward Drive.” For it is in these short sections
of the book that the reader is brought
away from the act of hunting itself,
yet compellingly reminded of what
calls us to the forest. Davis seats
us before the noon campfire with its
boiling teakettle, and again in the
truck on the way home, entertains
us with a discourse on classic mythology,
and reminds us that we hunt for reasons
in addition to the kill. As we stop
to enjoy lunch and sip our tea, the
babble of the brook and the wind in
the trees calls to us, and weighty,
yet pleasant, hunt-inspired ruminations
later that day on our return to civilization
evoke the hypnotic, mesmerizing lure
of the hunt.
“Serving the
Bird” educates the palate and
provides the reader with a brief glimpse
into the refined table Davis must
have enjoyed after his woodcock hunts.
However, despite the descriptions
of tantalizing dishes and accompaniments,
Davis reserves his final gastronomic
praise for perhaps the most simple
preparation: roast woodcock.
What grand discussions must have accompanied
the dinners Davis and his fellow sportsmen
enjoyed? One can only imagine. In
1904 Davis wrote a book on salmon
fishing, and Woodcock Shooting
was his second foray into the literary
world. It would be his last. Sadly,
in 1908 Edmund Davis was shot and
killed in mysterious circumstances
shortly after writing Woodcock
Shooting, and the sporting world
was deprived of a gifted and knowledgeable
writer. Who knows what literary treasures
might have sprung from Davis’ pen in years to come? One can only
imagine.
By Shaun
P. O’Connell
Shaun P. O’Connell has been
rambling the uplands of the Berkshires
and Green Mountains in search of pa’tridge,
woodcock, and brook trout since he
was a boy. Much to the chagrin of
his wife, he shows no sign of ever
growing up.
© 2004
Shaun P. O’Connell
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