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 
