COUNTRY LIFE
Protect the Woodcock
February brings in the close season, which ought to be closer than it is. The other day in a little wood just eleven miles north of Charing Cross twelve woodcock were flushed, a remarkable event in so nearly urban a place. There are snipe as near, perhaps a good deal nearer, for this wild and wayward bird seems still to nurse an inherited nostalgia for its old famous haunt in Eaton Square and by the Albert Memorial. We often hear laments for disappearing birds, but a good many increase, and in this class the woodcock must be mentioned. Its immigration depends doubtless on Con- tinental rather than English conditions, but there seems good reason to believe that its breeding grounds in this island steadily extend. It is high time that the close season for it were extended. To shoot in March pairs that would breed in our midst is an outrage. Human nature is weak. Even those sportsmen who are most eager for this reform find it difficult to resist shooting the bird while the season is open. They themselves desire to be compelled by the law.
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