-like speed, scarcely inferior to the snipe's or
swallow's, and fly a half mile if you miss them; and laugh to scorn the
efforts of any one to bag them, who is not an out-and-outer! No chance
shot, no stray pellet speaks for these--it must be the charge, the whole
charge, and nothing but the charge, which will cut down the grown bird
of October! The law should have said woodcock thou shalt not kill until
September; quail thou shalt not kill till October, the twenty-fifth if
you please; partridge thou shalt kill in all places, and at all times,
when thou canst! and that, as we know, Frank, and A---, that is not
everywhere or often."

"But, seriously," said the Commodore, "seriously, would you indeed
abolish summer shooting?"

"Most seriously! most solemnly I would!" Archer responded. "In the first
place because, as I have said, it is a perfect sin to shoot cock in
July; and secondly, because no one would, I am convinced, shoot for his
own pleasure at that season, if it were not a question of now or never.
Between the intense heat, and the swarms of mosquitoes, and the
unfitness of that season for the dogs, which can rarely scent their game
half the proper distance, and the density of the leafy coverts; and
lastly, the difficulty of keeping the game fresh till you can use it,
render July shooting a toil, in my opinion, rather than a real pleasure;
although we are such hunting creatures, that rather than not have our
prey at all, we will pursue it in all times, and through all
inconveniences. Fancy, my dear fellows, only fancy what superb shooting
we should have if not a bird were killed till they were all full grown,
and fit to kill; fancy bagging a hundred and twenty-five fall woodcock
in a single autumn day, as we did this very year on a summer's day!"

"Oh! I agree with you completely," said Frank Forester, "but I am afraid
such a law will never be brought to bear in this country--the very day
on which cock shooting does not really begin, but is supposed by nine
tenths of the people to begin--the fourth of July is against it.* [*In
the State of New York close time for woodcock expires on the last day of
June--in New Jersey on the fourth of July--leaving the bird lawful prey
on the 1st and the 5th, respectively.] Moreover, the amateur killers of
game are so very few, in comparison with the amateur eaters thereof,
that it is all but impossible to enforce the laws at all upon this
subject. Woodcock even now are eaten in