14 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
community have done more to repress this wanton- 
ness of destruction than the Sportsmen’s Clubs. It 
was at their request that the killing of song-birds 
was prohibited altogether; and they are the most 
earnest to restrict the times of lawful sport to such 
periods as will not, by any possibility, permit its 
being followed during the season of incubation. 
Not alone by obtaining the passage of appropriate 
laws and their vigorous enforcement, have these 
clubs effected a great reform; but by their personal 
example and social influence, often, too, at consider- 
able loss to themselves. For while the poacher, 
taking the chance of a legal conviction as an acci- 
dent of business, and but a slight reduction of his 
unlawful profits, anticipates the appointed time, true 
sportsmen, restrained by a feeling of honor and self 
respect, although they know that the birds are being 
killed daily in defiance of the statute, wait till the 
lawful day arrives, and thus often, especially in 
woodcock shooting, sacrifice their entire season’s 
sport for a principle. 
This honorable spirit, if encouraged and extended, 
is the best protection for song-birds and game that 
can be had. The laws are only necessary to deter 
those who are dead to honor and decency, and to 
fix the proper times—which ought to be uniform 
throughout our entire country. But to enforce them 
requires the assistance of public opinion. Every 
encouragement should be given to sportsmen’s asso- 
ciations. The absurd prejudice that has originated 
from confounding them with a very different class 
