PREFACE. 1x 
afford a far greater amount of sport to the legitimate 
sportsman ? 
From the interest that attaches to those birds, 
which, though not directly included in the list of game, 
still form a highly attractive portion of the “bag” to 
most sportsmen, I have dwelt somewhat i extenso on 
the local habits of the various Plover, and Sandpipers 
that frequent our shores and marshes, whilst for like 
reasons the Snipe and Woodcock have demanded even 
more space; and the facts which I have collected as to 
their local and general history will, I trust, be read with 
interest by those for whom they were more especially 
intended—the sporting naturalists. In the absence, also, 
at present, of any legal protection, I would here plead 
strongly on behalf of the Woodcock in spring, a bird 
which, though yearly evincing more and more disposition 
to nest in our woods and plantations, is too often driven 
away or destroyed by the relentless gunner. Only let 
country gentlemen, and game preservers generally, interest 
themselves in this matter,—for the remedy lies in their 
own hands, and by strictly prohibiting their keepers and 
others from killing Woodcocks later than the end of 
February, they will in all probability be re-paid by the 
interesting sight of a Woodcock sitting on her leafy 
nest in their own coverts. A sight, too, which, owing 
to the extreme tameness of the bird at such times, may 
be frequently and harmlessly indulged in. 
In the selection of illustrations for this intermediate 
volume, the Great Bustard, as a now extinct species in 
from a code of game laws in force in the state of New York, and 
though in a country whose waste lands as compared with cultivated 
are perhaps as ten to one, we find penalties attached to the killing 
or destroying of Wild Pigeons during the nesting season; Wild- 
Ducks between the 1st of February and 15th of August; and Wood- 
cocks between January lst and July 4th. No wild birds nests to 
be robbed. No wild birds to be killed excepting in August, Sep- 
tember, October, November, and December; exceptions in favour 
of naturalists and persons preserving fruit from depredation. 
