GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 151 



bring up the rear. From July, when the yellow- 

 legs and dowitchers abound ; throughout August, in 

 which month the larger bay-birds are continuously 

 streaming by ; during September, when the English 

 snipe are on the meadows and the wood-ducks in the 

 lily-pad marshes of the fresh-water lakes ; in Octo- 

 ber, when the teal and blue-bills are abundant in the 

 great west; all through the fall and into winter, 

 when the geese and canvas-backs arrive, the bay- 

 man finds his sport in perfection. 



Many of the upland birds are disappearing ; the 

 quail is being killed with merciless energy, and his 

 loved haunts of dense brush are cleared away from 

 year to year ; the woodcock can hardly rest in peace 

 long enough to rear her young, and finds many of 

 her favorite secluded spots drained by the enterpris- 

 ing farmer ; the ruffed grouse disappears with the 

 receding forest, and the prairie chicken with the 

 cultivation of the open land. But although innu- 

 merable ducks, snipe, find plovers are killed every 

 season, and by unjustifiable measures are driven 

 from certain localities, their vast flights throughout 

 the whole country amounting to myriads in the 

 west are apparently as innumerable as ever. 



From the first of August to the last of December 

 they stretch athwart the sky from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific ; and although in localities they may 

 appear scarce, still constitute countless hosts. Were 

 it possible to stand on some peak of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and take in at a glance the vast stretch 

 of heavens from ocean to ocean, with the moving 



