THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 195 
We shall resist and persist ; at least I shall—I, Frank 
Forester, who never in my life have killed a bird out of 
season intentionally, and who never will—who am com- 
pelled by sham sportsmen, cockney and pot-gunners to 
shoot woodcock in July; who have been invited, times 
out and over again, to shoot cock on men’s own ground, 
and therefore within the letter of the law, in New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, before the 
season ; who have ever refused to take the advantages, 
which every one takes over me; and who still intend to 
persist, though not to hope, that there may be sense 
enough, if not integrity, among the legislatures of the 
free states, to prevent the destruction of all game within 
their several jurisdictions. 
As the thing stands—and by the thing I mean the law 
—woodecock are to be shot on or about the first day of 
July ; and if, dear reader, you try to shoot any where 
within fifty miles of New York, or twenty-five of Phila- 
delphia, much later than the tenth of June, I am inclined 
to think that you will find wonderfully little sport; 
before the season, do not fire a shot, if you will take my 
advice ; if poachers will violate the law, and the law will 
not enforce itself against poachers, abstain from becom- 
ing a poacher yourself, and do not shoot before the 
season fairly commences. 
At this period of the year woodcock are almost inva- 
riably found in the lowlands ; sometimes, as, for instance, 
at Salem, in New Jersey, and many other similar locali- 
