18 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
nated grouse, from September first—and quail from 
November first—to the same period, both days in- 
clusive ; for wood-duck from August first till they 
migrate southward. It is desirable to fix upon an- 
niversaries or days that are easily remembered. 
Woodcock are often young and weak in early sum- 
mer, and the three days gained between the first 
and the fourth of July are quite an advantage. 
Although the first brood of quail may be fully 
grown in October, a vast number of the birds are 
too small, and the brush is too dense and thick 
before the first of the ensuing month; whereas it 
is simply monstrous to slay pinnated grouse, put 
up by the panting, overheated pointer from the 
high grass of the western prairie, in the month of 
August, ere they can half fly. But the migratory 
birds of the coast—the waterfowl and snipe, the 
waders and plovers—may continue to be shot when 
they can be found, till their rapidly diminishing 
numbers shall compel a more sensible and consider- 
ate treatment. 
The bay-snipe lead the advancing army of the 
game birds that have sought the cool and secluded 
marshes of Hudson’s Bay and the Northern Ocean 
to raise their young, and are hastening south from 
approaching cold and darkness to more congenial 
climes. Next come the beautiful wood-duck, and, 
almost simultaneously, the English snipe; then the 
swift but diminutive teal; after him the broad-bill 
or the blue-bill of the west; and then a host of 
other ducks, till the hardy canvas-backs and geese 
