200 
FRANK FORESTER^ FIELD SPORTS. 
more, his indigenousness to the land, acts in a considerable 
degree as a protection to him. But the A/Vbodcock, who is a 
mere emigrant, here to-day and away to-morrow, has no 
domestic friend, no landlord to protect him, and men forget that 
if spared, he will as surely return to breed in the same wood 
again, bringing all his progeny with him to increase and mul¬ 
tiply, as the tepid winds and warm showers of April and May 
will succeed to the easterly gales and snow drifts of March, and 
the leaves be green in summer from the buds which burst in 
spring. 
My game law, such as it is, will be found in the appendix to 
Upland Shooting. I believe it would be useful as it is, but 
should any sportsman or any society of spoilsmen be able to 
concoct one better either in practice, or in the probability of 
success, I and all my friends, and those who think with me on 
the subject, are prepared to support it. Unity of action is the 
one thing needful; and that cannot be attained if every man 
holds out resolutely for his own crotchet. 
Let the principle once be affirmed and made good, and the 
details are of infinitely minor importance. They will follow. 
For the rest, what is to be done, must be done quickly, or we 
shall be liable to the ridicule which falls on the tardy faineant 
who locks his stable door after the horse is stolen. 
Three or four more seasons like the two last, and the ques¬ 
tion will be settled to our hands, and if we do not bestir 
ourselves now, we shall find ere long that we shall have neither 
summer nor autumn Cock-shooting within a hundred miles of 
the seaboard. 
