Year: 1869

Year after year the sportsmen of our State
apply to the Legislature at Albany to obtain
proper statute for the protection OF game; year
after year they study and prepare the appro-
pirate enactments; year after year the stu
pidity or inexperience of our legislative Solons
proves too much for them, and they come
back no happier than they went. A new game
law has become regular thing at Albany. Its
arrival is expected as certainly as that of the
tax levy or the Broadway railroad charter, or
q wharf and pier bill but as s'there is nothing
in It" the members are offered mo reasons"
why it should pass, and, the sportsmen having
little political influence, 1t is cast aside,
changes made in the time for killing wood
cock or catching trout or bagging quail; there
is such q swapping round of dates and limita-
tions that experienced sportsmen should also
be experienced lawyers to understand whether
they are enjoying their sport in season or out
Of season; and other men would have to carry
with them half-dozen quarto volumes, bound
in calf, of the New York ''Statutes at LARGE"
and carefully study each section before they
dare pull trigger on a bevy of quail or cast fly
over speckled trout.


In olden times woodcock shooting commenced
on the 4th of July, the national birthday; then
it was postponed till August |, when there are
no woodcock to shoot; next it was delayed
till September. Last year glorious muddle
was made by division of the State into dis
trict that was washed by the tide and one that
was not, and now some wiseacre has hit upon
what he considers happy mean-mean enough
in the view of those who understand the sub
ject-and proposes to allow poachers to kill
woodcock until the third week in July, when
honest sportsmen are to commence, provided
the game is not all used up. SO with trout.
In ancient times they could not be angled for
after the ist of September nor before the lst
of February; then the month of February was
Topped of, which was right, but last year the
month Of September was added. AS for
partridges, the periods Of their protection were
continually altered and confused, until at last
it was provided that they might be killed on
the third day Of July, at season when the
young are hardly aedgcd, in all counties Of the
State, where, unfortunately for them, the tide
happened to ebb and 1owv-a curious distinc-
tion, which would never have entered the
brain Of any one but an Albany legislator,
who alone car explain what effect the ebb and
now Of the tide have on partridges, their habits
or their times OF incubation.


What sportsmen want Is very simple what
they can get may be another question. They
want fixed times, no particular matter what,
provided they are not to be regulated by the
ebb and flow Of the tide during which game
can be killed. They want special provision
that after certain period game must neither
be killed nor sold in the markets, nor, as the
law expresses 1t, had in possession, by any
one. They want to stop the sale, knowing that
by so doing they will stop the killing. II
poachers cannot dispose Of their birds or fish
they will no longer kill them. The vulnerable
point In game protection is the market, and
the supporters OF poaching are the marketmen,
even when Gas they often are) they are innocent
Of the intention Of 80 doing. Under an absurl
provision Of the statute game killed before
The law Is up may be sold afterwards. Amid all