THE CLOSE SEASON.
Even sportsmen may enjoy the arrival of the close season, which begins just one day later than the law-giver intended, for the first of February is not close but open. It would be well to correct the little mistake, if only as an 'excuse for a general revision. During last season I saw a leveret, small but capable of a fair turn of speed, on February 17th, doubtless an extraordinarily early date ; but in every year hares are hunted later than a regard for the sanctities of Nature permit. Duck are among the earliest of all nesters, and in an open season such as this, partridges—the ideal parents among birds —always pair well before the end of January. Three weeks of shooting in January should be enough in any year ; and both hounds and harriers carry on 'their sport too far into the spring. After all, it is a happy accident for the engrooved sportsman that both coarse fishing and, here and there, salmon fishing become legal as shooting grows out of date.
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