PREFACE. IX 



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 in 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 3 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 1st 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. 



