Country Life
Certain incidents of observation during this spring have made me feel more acutely than ever before that we need a thorough reform of the dates of the close seasons. Let me take the animals concerned one by one. Among the earliest of nesting birds are the ducks. Indeed, they often produce a brood so early that they have the utmost difficulty .to feed them, in Wintry conditions and in the hungry weeks preceding spring. We recognize this earliness in the duck by ending the close season on August 1st. On what principle, then, do we continue the open season into March after the date when much later breeders are sacrosanct ? The majority of sportsmen are inclined to think that February 1st is too late for,beginning the close season for partridges ; and the best of them in practice do not dream of shooting the birds after pairing, though that has begun in early January. They are right ; but, as the partridge breeds two months later than the duck, all this gives an a fortiori argument for protecting the duck.
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