GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 



141 



England nnd America, are migratory, although the 

 mere temporary character of their residence does 

 not, in our view, at all alter the nature of their 

 claims. The larger European woodcock is by no 

 means so delicious or highly flavored a bird as our 

 yellow-breasted, round-eyed beauty, and is much 

 scarcer ; while the foreign quail, on the other hand, 

 is smaller than ours, and in southern Europe is 

 found in vast flocks ; but both are entitled to high 

 rank among modern sportsmen. 



The term Game Birds, therefore, should be, and 

 has been by general consent, greatly extended in its 

 application, and applied to all the numerous species 

 which, whether migratory or not, are killed not 

 alone for the market, but for sport; and which are 

 followed on the stubble fields, in brown November, 

 with the strong-limbed and keen-nosed setter, or 

 shot from blind ifl scorching August ; slain from 

 battery in freezing December, or chased in a boat, 

 or misled by decoys. AU wild birds that furnish 

 sport as well as profit are therefore game ; and the 

 gentle dowitchers along our sea-coast, lured to the 

 deceitful stools, are as much entitled to the name as 

 the stately ruflPed grouse of our wild woods, or the 

 royal turkey of the far west. 



To constitute a legitimate object of true sport, the 

 bird must be habitually shot on the wing, and the 

 greater the skill required in its capture, the higher 

 its rank. The turkey, therefore, although frequently 

 killed on the wing, is more a game bird by suffer- 

 ance than by right, and partly from his gastronomic 



