Description
Softcover, 204 pages.
Guy de la Valdène’s beautifully written essay is an ode to an iconic bird, part natural history, and part hunting memoir. It’s a well-regarded and undisputed classic—an edgy, elegant examination of the habits and history of a reclusive gamebird, the Woodcock, native to Europe and North America, a bird that’s been hunted and celebrated since Roman times. Valdène writes exuberantly of the bird, the hunt, and the feast, gracefully balancing the obsessions of a naturalist, sportsman, and gourmand.
In 1983 Valdene traveled around the country studying the woodcock and joining the efforts of scientists and bird lovers to band the game bird and document its loss of habitat. Summing up what he learned about this curious bird and its habits, he deplores the rapid dwindling of the woodcock population in the U.S., due in part to hunters' killing two million of them each year. Valdene makes no excuses, however, for his own delight in hunting and eating the vulnerable bird. This contradiction remains at the heart of his book in which he oddly blends natural history with accounts of his hunting.
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