SMALL SHOT 221 



safely to its breeding ground and return to pay 

 tenfold interest in the fall for the lease of life you 

 have given it. You would recoil with horror from 

 the thought of killing a doe heavy with young, for 

 you are an honorable and conscientious sports- 

 man. And yet, all the females of these birds of 

 passage are carrying eggs more or less developed, 

 the hope of the abundant continuation of their 

 species. And your example is worth something, as 

 every man's is, yours perhaps worth far more than 

 another's. If you did not get shooting in the spring, 

 it is not unlikely that some one else would stay at 

 home, simply because you did. 



Another excuse and a no better one is, " If we do 

 not shoot ducks and geese and snipe in spring, we 

 shall have no shooting till summer woodcock 

 shooting comes," which ought not to come at all. 

 Why not wait till autumn for sport worth having, 

 and concerning which one need have no qualms of 

 conscience? Is not sport, like love, "the sweeter 

 for the trial and delay?" 



Let the gun rest for a few months longer, and 

 then when the steel bhie skies of autumn endome 

 the bluer waters and the varied hues of frost- 

 painted woods and russet marshes, you shall reap 

 your reward if it is no more than the consciousness 

 of having faithfully done your duty. It is some- 

 times nobler sportsmanship to spare than to kill. 

 Assuredly it is so at this season. 



