254 AMERICAN GAME. 
denizen of swarming cities, may take his leisure with 
his gti “in the wide vale, or by the deep wood-side,” 
and enjoy the rapture of those sylvan sports which he 
may not participate in sweltering July, in which they 
are alas! permitted by ill-considered legislation, in 
every other state, save thine, honest and honorable 
Massachusetts.* 
In truth there is no period of the whole year so well 
adapted, both by the seasonable climate, and the state 
of the country, shorn of its crops, and not now to be 
injured by the sportsman’s steady stride, or the gallop 
of his high-bred setters, both by the abundance of game 
in the cleared stubbles and the sere woodlands, and by 
the aptitude of the brisk, bracing weather, for the 
endurance ‘of fatigue, and the enjoyment of manful 
exercise, as this our favorite November. ; 
In this month, the beautiful Ruffed Grouse, that 
mountain-loving and man-shunning hermit, steals down 
from his wild haunts among the giant rhododendrons, 
* A law was passed, during thespring of the present year, in that 
respectable and truly conservative State, by which the murder of un- 
fledged July Woodcock, by cockney gunners, was prohibited ; and the 
close time judiciously prolonged until September. The debate was 
remarkable for two things, the original genius with which the Hon. 
Member for Westboro’ persisted that Snipe are Woodcock, and Wood- 
cock Snipe, all naturalists to the contrary notwithstanding ; and the 
pertinent reply to the complaint of a city member, that to abolish July 
shooting would rob the city sportsman of his sport—viz., that in that 
case it would give it to the farmer. Marry, say we, amen, so be it! 
