The Wild-Fowlers 155 



gunner, no more spring shooting for us 

 from now on, law or no law." 



' Thank you, my good friends/' re- 

 plied Seth. " And let us hope we can 

 some day arrange matters so that our 

 snipe, plover, duck, and geese may be 

 spared here by all sportsmen in their 

 spring migration, their journey from the 

 south where they winter to the north 

 where they breed, for when this is done 

 they will return here with their herds of 

 young in the late summer, autumn, and 

 early winter months when on their way to 

 the south again, and we will all have bet- 

 ter sport at better conditioned fowl. To 

 shoot a bird in the spring-time is like de- 

 stroying, as Shakespeare says, the vine for 

 one sweet grape. Every duck or goose or 

 snipe or plover shot in the mating season 

 means the destruction of the brood it 

 would raise for us, as well. But I must 

 say I like bay shooting, and I hope to 

 have lots of it, in the proper season, the 

 fall and winter months, and from a reedy 



