192 AMERICAN GAME. 



among others, is one cause of my very strong desire to 

 see summer woodcock shooting entirely abolished. 



Unless this is done, I am convinced beyond doubt, 

 that before twenty years have elapsed the woodcock will 

 be as rare an animal as a wolf between the great lakes 

 and the Atlantic sea-board, so ruthlessly are they perse- 

 cuted and hunted down by pot-hunters and poachers, for 

 the benefit of restaurateurs and of the lazy, greedy 

 cockneys who support them. There is, however, I fear, 

 little hope of any legislative enactment toward this 

 highly desirable end ; for too many even of those who 

 call themselves, and who ought to be, true sportsmen, 

 are selfish and obstinate on this point, and the name of 

 the pot-hunters is veritably legion. Moreover, it is to be 

 doubted whether, even if such a statute were added to 

 our game-laws, it could be enforced ; so vehemently 

 opposed do all the rural classes, who ought to be the 

 best friends of the game, show themselves on all occa- 

 sions to any attempt toward preserving them, partly 



from a mistaken idea that game-laws are of feudal 







origin and of aristocratic tendency ; and so averse are 

 they to enforce the penalties of the law on offenders, 

 from a servile apprehension of giving offense to their 

 neighbors. 



At present, in almost all the States of which the wood- 

 cock is a summer visitant, either by law or by prescrip- 

 tion, July is the month appropriated to the commence- 

 ment of their slaughter ; in New York the first is the 



