Not vouching for the truth of this tale, I tell it as 'twas told to me;-the teller was a sportsman, and a man of average veracity-that is to say, I should have been inclined to believe any fact he stated, where I could see no interest, on his part, which should lead him to attempt deception. In this case there was no such reason; not even the desire of prevailing in argument, for we were not arguing. I cannot, therefore, well doubt the correctness of his information.

If truly stated, as I believe it to have been, this fact makes somewhat for my former opinion. I have, also, myself, frequently found scattered birds on such hill-tops, and in such mountain-swales, while deer-stalking, in August and September, though not in numbers which would justify the belief in a general migration en masse to such localities.

If, however, my half-formed opinion -for it is no more be correct, the birds are dispersed at this period of the year, and are only to be found, casually, in knots of three or four, and never in greater numbers.

The other, and, on the whole, perhaps more probable suggestion, is this: that, after rearing their young, driven by the heat of the weather-or, it may be, by the temporary exhaustion of food on their favorite grounds, they move farther northward-as does the English snipe, yet earlier in the season, not to return until the premature cold of northern Canada drives them back, to tarry with us a few months on their way southward.

Should this prove to be the case, the woodcock, instead of being termed with us a summer bird of passage, must be regarded as a spring and autumnal visitant, like his congener the snipe,--with this difference, that the snipe rarely breeds with us, going northward to nidificate, while his fellow-emigrant, our scolopax, invariably rears his young before going farther toward the frosts of the northern pole.

Of these suggestions my readers must judge whether is the better of the two; one of the two I believe to be the only way for accounting for the woodcock's short disappearance at this season. For the rest, as I leaned at first to the former, so do I now rather incline toward the latter belief, facts not bearing out the former to my satisfaction,

although I do not think the question has been, as yet, fully tested by experiment.

It is to be regretted, here, that this question is yearly becoming, in these districts, more difficult of solution; and I am the more strenuous in noting this emigration, because things may come, ere long, to such a pass, that it will become wholly undistinguishable.

When first I shot in New-Jersey, and in the river counties of New-York, the disappearance of the birds was evident enough; because, up to a certain day, they abounded, and, after that, were not. Now, long before the second week of July, the woodcock are exterminated in their summer haunts for miles and miles around our large cities too many of them, alas! slaughtered before the season, when scarcely able to fly-when nearly unfit for the table

when a game despicable to the loyal sportsman, and a victim easy to the pot-hunting knave, who goes gunning with a half-bred, half-broken cur, and a German fowling-piece, dear at a dollar's purchase.

Oh! gentlemen legislators-gentlemen sportsmen,

"Reform it altogether!"

Oh! ye choice spirits, who stood forth, after the long, hard winter and deep snow-drifts, quail-destroying, of 1836, to rescue that delightful little fowl from total extinction, stand forth in likewise now, in protection of the woodcock. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Railroads are ruining the hopes-the pleasures of the sportsman; our best shooting grounds now swarm, on the first of July, with guns more numerous than birds; the Warwick woodlords, once inaccessible to the pot-hunter and the poacher, may now be reached for fifty cents; may now be swept clear in a single day; nay, are swept clear of half fledged younglings, by men, boys, and bunglers, and ruthlessly devoured before the season has set in, by ignorant voracious cockneys.

"Reform it altogether."

Enact that the woodcock shall not be slain-shall not be possessed—as Mr. Blunt possessed him-on plate or in

stomach, until the first day of October. Every true sportsman-every sportsman whatsoever, will go hand and heart with the law--will watch and prevent the illegal sale of the bird; and then, ye gods of woodcraft! Sylvans and Fauns! and thou, friend of the hunter, Pan! what sport shall we have in brown October, when the sere underbrush is bare of leaves to mar the sportsman's aim; when the cool dewy earth sends up the odor of the game in fresh streams to the setter's keen and sagacious nose; when the pure air braces the nerves and fans the brow, delicious; when the full-grown, white-fronted, pink-legged cock springs up-not fluttering feebly now, and staggering stupidly into the muzzle of the gun, to drop again within twenty yards, but on a vigorous and whistling pinie with sharp-piping alarm note, swift as a rifle-bullet, soaring away through the tree-tops, or darting, devious with abrupt zig-zags, among the thick-set saplings.

Him, no boy can biaze at, his twenty times in half an hour, and slaughter after all with one chance pellet, or happily wearied down without one! Him can no German gun achieve, of cast-iron, scattering its shot over an area of twenty feet, harmless at twenty yards! Him can no cur-dog flush in gun-shot of pot-hunting poucher.

No! gentle reader, him, whether he lies in the tufted fern and wintergreens, or the dry slope of some warm westering hill-side, among brown second growth of oak and chesnut; whether he wades among the shallow mudpools, sheltered by fern, dock-leaves, and dark colt's-foot, of some deep maple swamp, it needs the stealthy pace, the slow cat-like guarded motion, the instinctive knowledge of the ground, the perfect nose, and absolute docility, which belong only to the thorough dog of the thorough sportsman, to find certainly, and stand staunchly! Him, whether he flap up, seen for one second only among the leafless stems, and lost the next among the tufted tops of the yet verdant alders; whether he soar away, with his sharp whistle, far, far above the red and yellow tree tops; whether he pitch, now here, now there, sharply, and suddenly, among close saplings, it needs the eye of faith, the finger of instinct, the steady nerves, the

deliberate celerity, the marking glance, which characterise the true sportsman

the crack shot, who--as poor Cypress averred truly-is born like the poet, not made like the orator-to cut down at his speed; not wing-tipped or leg-broken, but riddled by the concentrated charge, turned over and over in mid air, arrested mercifully by quick and unerring death, and falling with a heavy thud, which tells good things of ten ounces' weight, on the brown leaves of gorgeous autumn.

My words are weak to describe the full charm of this noble pastime-noble, when followed, as it should be, in the true animus and ardor of the chasebut most ignoble when perverted to base, culinary, carnal. gluttonous. selfseeking-weak, are they, when compared with the vivid and heart-thrilling reality-yet read them, gentle legislators; spurn not the bill of scolopaxlong though it be, in no wise tediousspurn not the humble petition of the sportsman-Enact! enact! and save our gentle well-born woodcock-preserve our harmless occupation from the untimely end which threatens it. And ye, oh, generous club, who hold your meetings under the sign and sanction of the noble woodcock, perpend, and ponder. Judge, if it be not for the best, to adopt my plan for our bird's safeguard; one common day of killing in all our northern country, for all states, all counties, so shall we shun all cavilling-and that one day, the first day of October! And thou, Colonel D-P-r, famous although thy race of pointers, great although thy renown with the Manton, hear my words and repent-thou, who, a member of that same sportsman's club in Gothamthou, who, although thou didst, alas! know better, didst most feloniously and basely, taking advantage of a flaw in Jersey law, anticipate thy brother sportsmen, and shoot woodcock long before the fourth day of July, on our friend Tom Dekay's fine farm, nigh unto Vernon, in good Sussex county-Oh, fie on thee! repent! repent, and be forgiven!

Oh! if there be a clause in the NewJersey statute permitting every landowner to slay game, in or out of season, on his own farm-to wring the neck of the hen quail sitting upon her speckled eggs to murder the hen

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woodcock hovering her helpless young; —if that same clause empower that owner to authorize his friend to do like shameful murder, does it befit the gentle and the generous, the courteous and the chivalrous-for such should the true sportsman be- to avail himself of so miserable a pettifogging subterfuge ? Ashamed to hear of it, thou wert, Col. D-P-r, for thou didst blush, confused, and stammer faint apology, when charged with thy misdoings; why not ashamed to do it, gallant colonel? or how shall we dare to enforce the law, or pray for legislative aid to save our proper birds from others, if one from among ourselves resort to small evasion-descend to dirty depredations?

I trust, indeed, that the day will ere long arrive-if not ere long, then will it never be when all true sportsmen, and their name, in this land of guns, is legion, will set their faces steadily toward game protection, as steadily against those false brothers of the gun, who, crying out, protect! protect yet lose, themselves, no opportunity, when unsuspected or unseen, of slaughtering for the bag, and for the brag, at all risks, in all manners, and at all

seasons.

There certainly is no more manly, no more salubrious, no more animating sport, than the pursuit of game, with the trained dog and the gun. It naturally induces hardihood, and strength of limb, freeness of breath, vigor of constitution; it makes men familiar with those works of God, in the field and forest, which are unknown to the dwellers of pent cities! To the studious and sedentary scholar, it is a salutary change of habits, a better tonic and restorative than any bark or bitters; to the rich citizen, the man of wealth and luxury, and leisure, it is almost the only thing that shall save him from drivelling down into a mere gluttonous sensualist, or, yet worse, a mere effeminate man-milliner. It leads us into the wildest and the fairest scenes of nature; it brings us quietly to think and ponder with ourselves; it teaches us the habits and the instincts of those inferior animals, which we too much incline to undervalue; it causes us to weigh their instincts, to compare them with our own boasted reason; it discovers to us, that the poorest bird, the humblest quadruped, has gifts and attributes,

greater than we possess, and exquisitely suited to its wants.

Does it not lead us, then, to self-examination in some sort, and to humility; to the knowledge of ourselves, of our fellow-men, and of the great works of our Maker?

I, for one, think so; and I never hear a greasy-faced, sanctimonious fellow declaim against the cruelty, the wantonness, and the unprofitableness of field sports, but I set him down for an arrant fool, or an arrant hypocrite-but I long to assure him, that in the eyes of Heaven, and, God be thanked, even of this world also, some pursuits are held profitable, beside that of the almighty dollar; and some amusements innocent, beside cheating our neighbors in the street, and calling that business; or slandering them by the fireside, and calling that conversation!

I believe, therefore, that field-sports, not carried to excess, but used in their proper places, and at their proper times, are very innocent, very creditable, and very profitable, and very improving pastime. For my own part, I know that they have ministered incalculably to the improvement of my bodily health; and I am sure, at least, that they have not deteriorated my mental faculties; nor do I conceive how any reasonable man can fail to discover that some inducement is necessary to lead men to take that degree of exercise, which is necessary to the maintenance of the mens sana in corpore sano; and that there can be no stronger or better inducement, than this ancient and masculine amusement, which never was decried until these effete days, rich mainly in hypocrisy and humbug.

Xenophon said, of old, that there was no sport so suitable to the making of soldiers, as this said sport of hunting; and, to this day, it is true that the ability-nay, not ability only, but willingness to endure all extremes of heat and cold, of thirst and hunger, of fatigue and watchfulness, to which the sportsman must inure himself, is that, precisely, which in the highest degree constitutes the aptitude of the citizen to be the soldier. Nor is this all; for the readiness of hand, and quickness of eye, the instinctive rapidity of thought and glance, and the coolness under surprise, which the sportsman

must needs acquire if he would be successful, are qualities more requisite than any to the warrior.

Depending, as America does mainly, if not entirely, for her defence, on the facility of converting her citizens into soldiers, I think that all consistent means should be taken to prevent that, of which I fancy there is some danger, at least in the great cities; the growth, I mean, of luxury and effeminate habits among the rising generation.

Destroy game-abolish field sports, and you abolish the most manly of exercises; you leave the lounge in fashionable streets, or the drive in easy chariots, as the sole out-of-doors amusement of the wealthy man; and to the poor man you leave none at all, but rioting and what is termed rowdyism-if these can be called amusements.

For all these reasons, therefore, I think it highly advisable that the extermination of game in the vicinity of our large cities should be prevented if possible; and that it can only be prevented by the speedy interposition of the states' legislatures, backed by a truer and more single spirit than now exists among those who are proud of the name, even when they possess too few of the attributes, of honorable sportsmen, I hold certain.

To these, therefore, I appeal in protection especially of the woodcockwhich will, most assuredly, before ten years have elapsed, be as utterly exterminated, within fifty miles of NewYork, and within the like circuit of all other large cities, as are the deer and the heath-hen-nay, the wild turkies, which once peopled our own huntinggrounds.

In conclusion-I find, on reference to my last article on this subject, that I made allusion to a mode of killing the woodcock commonly practised in the southern states, which is so singular, and so completely at variance with all our ideas of sporting in these regions, that it deserves mention, and will, I doubt not, be interesting to many readers who may never have heard of such a process-which, unheard of, they certainly never would imagine.

This process is termed fire hunting; it is carried on, of course, at night, and arises from the habits of the bird in that section of the country, which differ wholly from its usages while here.

In Louisiana and Mississippi, where, chiefly, this mode of sporting prevails, the woodcock lies during the day-time entirely in the dense canebrakes and impenetrable swamps which intersect and divide the cultivated lands and rich plantations, and wherein it would be almost impossible, and altogether weary and unprofitable to attempt to follow him; as he could hardly be killed on the wing in such covert as is there found, while the toil would be incomparably greater than the pleasure of the pursuit.

No sooner is it dark, however, than out the woodcocks come by thousands, from their fastnesses, and pitching down on all sides in the old fields and maize stubbles, apply themselves to nibbling and boring in the soft rich loam for their succulent worm diet.

satin

Hereupon the fire-hunt commences. With gun and game-bag, powder-flask and shot-pouch, and all appliances and means secundum artem, the sportsman sallies forth; but no silky-haired, highstrung, sagacious setter-no skinned, rat-tailed, obedient pointer follows his master's heel. In lieu of Don or Sancho, an old, crafty, grizzle. pated, merry negro comes forth, equipped with the brazen vessel of a warming-pan, or the like instrument, set erect on a pole of some ten or twelve feet in length, and filled with lightwood, pine knots, or such like brightburning combustibles.

Arrived on the feeding-ground, a light is applied; the quick fuel sends out a broad, ruddy glare; and as the bearer slowly circumambulates the field, a circle of intense lustre is shed for ten yards around him, rendering every object more clearly visible than at noonday. The shooter walks close to the fire-bearer, on his right hand, and ever and anon, as the circular glare passes along over the surface of the ground, his eye detects the woodcock, crouching close to the earth, and gazing with its full, fascinated eye upon the strange illumination. The next instant, up it springs, dizzy and confused; and soaring upward toward the light, it is seen for a second, and then is lost in the surrounding darkness; but of that one quick second the sportsman takes advantage, and by a snap-shot cuts him down with a light charge-never killing a bird at above ten paces distant, and often bag