Pkc. 11.] BIRDS. 197 



" I liad never studied their iiisfory, and the nature of their liabits, and 

 character of their food, until this season. I was incited to do tliis from 

 meeting with a pair of the birds every time I walked over a certain portion' 

 of the fariii. They were ahnost as gentle as the fowls in the door-yard, and 

 frequently I noticed them so busily engaged picking up worms in the corn- 

 field, that it led uie iuto a train of thought and study that has taught me 

 not to kill (quails. A few days ago I saw my pets — for such I had come to 

 regard thera — with sixteen young ones, each nearly as large as its parent. 

 If I could guard that flock from the depredation of idle boys, no money 

 would buy them. Why, wliat useful as well as interesting birds they are ! 

 "We want stringent laws, well enforced, to protect quails." 



Yes, but, most of all, we want information for Airmcrs of their value. 



The following arc the penalties of the Xew York Game Law, passed April 

 14, 18G0: 



It is $25 fine to kill a deer in tlie first seven months of the year. 



It is $2 fine to kill a woodcock between January 1 and Julj- 4 ; or a par- 

 tridge (ruffled grouse) between January 15 and September 1 ; or a quail be- 

 tween January 1 and October 15 ; or any wild duck between February 1 

 and August 1. 



It is 810 fine to kill a prairie fowl, or pinnated grouse, at any time within 

 five years. 



It is $10 fine to trap pr snare quail or grouse. 



It is 50 cents fine to kill, trap, or snare a nightingale, night-hawk, blue- 

 bird, yellow-bird, oriole, finch, thrush, lark, sparrow, wren, martin, swallow, 

 woodpecker, or any other harmless Ijird, at any time; and bobolinks and 

 robins only between February 1 and October 1. 



It is $5 fine to catch brook or lake trout, or muscalongc, between Septem- 

 ber 1 and March 1 ; and it is $2 fine to catch them in any way but by a hook 

 and line. 



It is $5 fine for any person to enter the premises of another with fire-anus, 

 or other hunting or fishing implements, with the intent of using them ; and 

 if he enters upon a cultivated field, orchard, or garden, or where crops are 

 growing, in pursuit of game, without the consent of the owner, he is finable 

 $10 for each oft'ense. 



Sucli is the law now in force in this State. Let all who are interested see 

 that it is made efl'ectual. The dilliculty in the way of its enforcement is a 

 very lax state of morals among the ])coplc, many of whom consider birds 

 free iiluiidcr; and tlu-y have so long enjnyed tlie privilege of rambling over 

 everybody's laud, as freely as thougii tiiey owned it, that it is hard to con- 

 vince them that they do not. The contrary can never be taugiit in courts, 

 nor by fines and ])risons; it must bo taught in our common schools and 

 around the t'armer's fireside. 



New Jersey has a good law ujion lier statute book for the protection of 

 small birds. It is diflictdt of enforcement, because the mass of people have 

 been educated to look upon all birds as noxious, or else worthy of destruc- 



