92 AMERICAN GAME. 



whisps, or single birds, tarry a few short days, and flifc 

 onward to their unknown destination. 



This, then, is their mystery that in no known land 

 are they perennial ; in no ascertained region so far as I 

 can learn are they positively known to breed in the 

 vast concourses which must breed somewhere, in order 

 to supply the prodigious flights which issue yearly from 

 the northern regions of three continents, Europe, 

 America, and Asia, to fill the warmer countries, and to 

 be slaughtered literally by myriads, season after season, 

 without undergoing much if any visible diminution of 

 numbers. 



Ever, in all places, in all countries, in all continents, 

 which they visit in spring, they are seen pressing north- 

 ward still, from March until May ; no one being able to 

 Bay here ends their tide of emigration, this is their chosen 

 resting-place. 



Their breeding season is from the middle of May to 

 the beginning of July ; on the 4th of which month I 

 have shot young birds, with the pin-feathers undeveloped, 

 as large as the parents these birds having been hatched 

 on the ground whereon I killed them. Indeed, it is my 

 opinion, that all birds which tarry in our latitudes be- 

 yond the 10th of May, either do breed with us, or would 

 do so but for the persecution of the pot-hunter all 

 which intend to steer farther north having departed ere 

 that time. 



About the 15th of July the returning hordes, young 



