116 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



sion and why they abstain from their favorite grounds in 

 worse locations, remains, and I fear we must remain, in the 

 dark. All the habits of the woodcock are, indeed, very partial- 

 ly and slightly understood. They arrive here, and breed early 

 in the spring sometimes, indeed, before the snow is off the 

 hills get their young off in June, and with their young are 

 most unmercifully, most urisportsmanly, thinned off, when they 

 can hardly fly such is the error, as I think it, of the law but 

 I could not convince my stanch friends, Philo, and J. Cypress, Jr., 

 of the fact, when they bestirred themselves in favor of the pro- 

 geny of their especial favorites, perdix virginiana and tetrad 

 umbellus, and did defer the times for slaying them legitimately 

 to such a period, that it is in fact next to impossible to kill the 

 latter bird at all. But vainly did I plead, and a false advocate 

 was Cypress after all, despite his nominal friendship, for that 

 unhappy Scolopax, who in July at least deserves his nickname 

 minor, or the infant. For, setting joke apart, what a burning 

 shame it is to murder the poor little half-fledged younglings in 

 July, when they will scarcely weigh six ounces ; when they will 

 drop again within ten paces of the dog that flushes, or the gun 

 that misses them ; and when the heat will not allow you even 

 to enjoy the consummation of their slaughter. Look at these 

 fellows now, with their gray foreheads, their plump ruddy 

 breasts, their strong, well-feathered pinions, each one ten ounces 

 at the least. Think how these jolly old cocks tower away, with 

 their shrill whistle, through the tree-tops, and twist and dodge 

 with an agility of wing and thought-like speed, scarcely inferior 

 to the snipe's or swallow's, and fly a half mile if you miss them ; 

 and laugh to scorn the efforts of any one to bag them, who is 

 not an out-and-outer ! No chance shot, no stray pellet speaks 

 for these it must be the charge, the whole charge, and nothing 

 but the charge, which will cut down the grown bird of October ! 

 The law should have said woodcock thou shall not kill until 

 September ; quail thou shalt not kill till October, the twenty- 

 fifth if you please ; partridge thou shalt kill in all places, and 

 at all times, when thou canst ! and that, as we know, Frank, 

 and A , that is not everywhere or often." 



" But, seriously," said the Commodore, " seriously, would you 

 indeed abolish summer shooting ?" 



" Most seriously ! most solemnly I would !" Archer responded. 

 " In the first place because, as I have said, it is a perfect sin to 

 shoot cock in July ; and secondly, because no one would, I am 



