To roast these birds, put them on a little spit, take a slice of wheaten bread, and toast it brown, then lay it on a dish under the birds; baste them with a little butter, and let the trail drop on the toast. When they are roasted, put the toast in the dish, lay the woodcocks on it, and have a quarter of a pint of gravy; pour it in a dish, and set it over a lamp or chafing-dish for three minutes; and send them to table. Epicures say you should never take any thing out of a woodcock or snipe. The head of the woodcock is considered a great delicacy.

To roast pheasants, partridges, quails, and other small birds, pick and draw them immediately after they are brought in. If they are of a nature to be improved by it, lard them with small slips of the fat of bacon drawn through the flesh with a larding-needle.

To roast reed-birds or ortolans, put into every bird an oyster, or a little butter mixed with some finely sifted breadcrumbs. Dredge them with flour. Run a small skewer through them, and tie them on the spit. Baste them with lard or with fresh butter. They will be done in about ten minutes. Reed-birds are very fine made into little dumplings with a thin crust of flour and butter, and boiled about twenty minutes. Each must be tied in a separate cloth.