Reproduction of the original: Woodcock’s Little Game by John Maddison Morton

Woodcock are one of the oddest birds in North America. They are a shorebird that got lost and ended up in the scrubby parts of the forest, and look like they were put together with the leftover parts of other birds. Oddities aside, each spring they rise to great beauty with their sky dance at dusk. Greg Hoch combines natural history, land management, scientific knowledge, and personal observation to examine this little game bird. Woodcock have a complex life history and the management of their habitat is also complex. The health of this bird can be considered a key indicator of what good forests look like.

More people are playing video games than ever before, and yet much of the work of their production remains obscured to us. Deploying a Marxist approach, Jamie Woodcock delves into the hidden abode of the gaming industry, unravelling the vast networks of artists, software developers, and factory and logistics workers whose material and immaterial labor flows into the products we consume on a gargantuan scale. Beyond this, the book analyzes the increasingly important role the gaming industry plays in contemporary capitalism, and the broader transformations of work and economy that it embodies. Woodcock also presents game-play itself not as a “deviant activity,” as it is often understood, but as a commentary of estrangement from contemporary forms of work. In so doing, it offers a fresh and much needed analysis of a sector which has for too long been neglected by scholars and labor activists alike.

“A fall of woodcock into a covert you have either chosen or to which you have been directed is a magic all its own,” Tom Huggler writes in this book devoted to the woodcock and to those who await the return to their favorite coverts each autumn. This book, with a new introduction by Charley Waterman, casts a similar spell as it chronicles Tom’s travels to New England, the Maritimes, Maine, Louisiana, then back to his beloved Michigan in search of a better understanding of the woodcock, and finally, a better understanding of himself. Like the annual migratory flights of the woodcock, A Fall of Woodcock follows no particular line, but rather meanders along the main currents and causeways of Huggler’s life, dropping down here and there in places that both sustain it and give it meaning. It covers his early hunting years, old friends and new ones, four-legged partners, woodcock researchers, and a visit with H. G. “Tap” Tapply. Huggler also traces his evolution from a run-and-gun birder to a slower but surer hunter who sets his own pace and his own bag limits. Those familiar with the magic and mystery of the American woodcock are sure to find a kindred spirit here. Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for hunters and firearms enthusiasts. We publish books about shotguns, rifles, handguns, target shooting, gun collecting, self-defense, archery, ammunition, knives, gunsmithing, gun repair, and wilderness survival. We publish books on deer hunting, big game hunting, small game hunting, wing shooting, turkey hunting, deer stands, duck blinds, bowhunting, wing shooting, hunting dogs, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.