THE WILSON SNIPE. 235 
with poles at night in the corn-fields, with the assistance of 
a brilliant torch. Like the noble salmon, the woodcock be- 
comes fascinated or stupefied by the brilliancy of the glare, 
and falls a ready victim to the club of the midnight prowl- 
er. America is now coming to that age that it is absolute- 
ly necessary to insist on the laws being enforced for the 
protection of game and fish. If not, half a century hence, 
the haunts which now abound with game will be as thor- 
oughly divested of it as the Hudson or Connecticut rivers — 
are of the princely salmon. Once extermination takes place, 
it will be too late to do aught but repine. 
SyirE abound throughout the prairies of Western Amer- 
ica, far outdoing all other game in their abundance. The 
Wilson snipe, for such is its proper name, is truly a splen- 
did bird, so nearly similar to our own home beauty that the 
skillful naturalist is alone able to distinguish the one from 
the other; in size, habits, flight, and even call, they are es- 
sentially alike. 
Spending the winter months in the Southern States, prin- 
cipally in those that border the Gulf of Mexico, as spring 
advances they follow up northward the line of demarkation 
between frost and thaw, ultimately arriving in that bound- 
less expanse which stretches northward from the great 
lakes to the Arctic Ocean. Up in this remote haunt is 
their principal breeding-ground, although occasionally a 
nest may be found much farther to the south ; but in such 
instances I have been induced to believe that either the 
male or the female bird had met with an accident, and thus 
been prevented following the migration of his or her com- 
panions. What a beautiful lesson all may learn from this! 
How it should speak home to the human heart, this attach- 
ment of the mate, who, sooner than desert a companion, 
forsakes for the time being his whole race, save one, and 
