176 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



He says : " The ordinary number at a hatching is four birds, and 

 if the first brood gets off early the parents immediately proceed 

 to a second incubation, the male bird in this case taking care of 

 the first brood until the second gets off, when all associate together 

 until the moulting season, when all ties are dissolved, and they 

 know thenceforth neither kindred nor kindness." If the season 

 is very forward and mild, woodcocks' nests may be found even as 

 early as March or perhaps the latter part of February. 



TIME FOR SHOOTING COCKS. 



If the weather continues favorable during the breeding season, 

 many young birds are large enough, throughout the Middle States, 

 to shoot in July, but many more half-grown ones will be found. 



If we could hope to exert any influence over the shooting pro- 

 pensities of the sporting community, we would advise them to 

 abstain from hunting these birds till late in September, or rather 

 October, when their age and increased size render them not only 

 a savory dish for the table, but the rapidity of their flight insures 

 them some chance of escape from the ever ready gun. No sports- 

 man can take any particular credit to himself for the wholesale 

 slaughter of young cocks during the month of July, as at this time 

 many of their victims can scarcely fly over a few yards, and might 

 as well be knocked down with a long pole as fired at with a gun. 

 However, both custom and the laws have sanctioned the barbarous 

 habit of shooting these birds at a much earlier period than October ; 

 in fact, have given license for their destruction when only half 

 fledged, and when, perhaps, the old birds are still engaged in the 

 hatching or rearing of a second brood. By the passage of these 

 injudicious enactments, our State legislators actually adopt and 

 encourage a certain plan to render this species of game, as well as 

 other kinds, nearly extinct throughout the country, in the course 

 of some few years. All we might say upon this subject would 

 avail but little, without the cheerful assistance of more wise 

 legislation. We therefore pass it by with these few observations 

 to all intelligent and liberal sportsmen, trusting that no gentleman 



