THE WOODCOCK. 177 



who follows the sports of the field as a manly and noble pastime 

 will henceforth be so recreant to the cause of humanity, and so 

 blind to the high duties of the craft, as to be seen with a gun in 

 his hand, at all events, in the month of June, in quest of the feeble 

 young cocks. 



At this early period all will acknowledge that woodcocks are 

 under the parental care, and generally are too weak to raise their 

 tender limbs above the tops of the lowest thickets, and not unfre- 

 quently they drop dead from mere fright on the discharge of the 

 fowling-piece. 



Such conduct on the part of shooters who ought to know better 

 is disgraceful in the extreme; and we cannot understand what 

 pleasure can be derived from killing these miserable little birds 

 one moment before the time set apart for their destruction, as they 

 are too small and insipid for the table even in July ; and honorable 

 sportsmen should not take any pride in doing that which they are 

 forced to do by stealth, as is necessarily the case if they go after 

 them in the latter part of June. Every day — nay, every hour — 

 of existence is of the utmost importance to woodcocks at this 

 period of the year : the destruction of a single old one may involve 

 the loss of a whole brood of young ones, which, if a few days older, 

 would have been able to take care of themselves. We know of 

 several sportsmen in our city who are in the habit of slipping off a 

 few days before the close of June, to have, as they term it, " the 

 first crack at the cocks;'' and we hope that their eyes may meet 

 with these remarks, and that they may relish them in the right 

 spirit and mend their ways accordingly. 



The law does not sanction the shooting of these birds, in our 



Northern States, before the fourth of July ; and it would have been 



far better if the framers of those legal enactments had prolonged 



the term of prohibition through the months of July and August. 



Some sportsmen, in justification of their wanton amusement, will 



tell us, no doubt, that cocks are a migratory and uncertain bird, 



and if we do not kill them in the summer we may not have the 



opportunity of doing it in the autumn, as they will abandon their 



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