COCK SHOOTING 89 



two guns in a day's shooting in Eastern Canada. There is great 

 pleasure in knowing that one owes whatever success he may have 

 enjoyed entirely to his own skill and to the accomplishments of his 

 canine friends. His glory has not been earned by mere luck. 



It is much to be regretted that the woodcock is exposed to ruth- 

 less persecution when massed during the depth of the Northern 

 winter within the borders of the South Atlantic and Gulf States. 

 Praiseworthy efforts are being made to avert its still further 

 diminution by arousing public opinion in America against wanton 

 and excessive destruction. 



Out of the nine Southern States within whose borders the wood- 

 cock retire, seven namely, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 

 Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas give the birds abso- 

 lutely no protection whatever ; all the winter long, from the arrival 

 in the fall until the departure in the spring, they are killed without 

 mercy, and none prohibits their shipment to the markets of the 

 Northern cities. The two other States, Alabama and South Carolina, 

 while granting a fair measure of protection, still do not cut off the 

 spring shooting. 



Hence it has happened that in many localities in the Northern 

 States where twenty-five years ago a fair shot with a good dog could 

 secure forty or fifty birds in a day's sport, it is doubtful if 10 per 

 cent, of the former bag could be obtained- to-day. Even in the most 



MIDDAY REST. 



