Bird life in England

THE LIBRARY

OF
THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND

BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND

BY

EDWIN LESTER ARNOLD

AUTHOR OF "ON THE INDIAN HILLS," "A SUMMER HOLIDAY IN SCANDINAVIA,
"COFFEE PLANTING IN INDIA," ETC.

Honfcon
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADlCCF

1887

[The right of translation is reserved

Lib,

TO

MY FATHER,

MY COUNSELLOR AND COMPANION
IN HOURS BOTH OF WORK AND PLAY,

I GRATEFULLY DEDICATE

ALL THAT IS LEAST UNWORTHY IX

THESE PAGES.

INTRODUCTION.

IN these pages I have attempted to give a somewhat uncon-
ventional view of bird life in England and her sister kingdoms
to north and west. The naturalist may smile at a monograph
so incomplete as this, but in Yarrel, Morris, Gould, Grey,
and a score of others, he will find exhaustive authors who
have gone with infinite care and pains through the whole
list of British birds and epitomized each. No attempt of
this sort has been made here. There are, to begin with,
more than three hundred birds nesting with greater or
lesser frequency in our islands, and even at such modest
allotment as two pages to each, we should have at once a
bulky volume of six hundred pages. But the greater part
of these wild fowl of meadow and marsh are the curator's
birds alone, and lovers of country side and the life of copse
and dingle can only hope to meet with but a very much
reduced selection from the formidable list which professors
and students have put together. It is of these birds, the
more familiar ones, I write.

Nor, though loving the gun and a long day in the open
over heather or rushes, illogical as it may seem to the

viii INTRODUCTION.

uninitiated, as much as I love the birds themselves, do I
pretend this volume to be any rival to Colonel Hawker's
immortal "Hints to Young Sportsmen," Daniel's com-
prehensive "Rural Sports," Folkard's " Wildfowler," Sir
Ralph Payne-Gallwey's chatty reminiscences of Irish sport,
or any of some hundred volumes which authors reputable
with gun and pen have given to the world. For such
treatises I have neither time nor inclination. Personally,
it is my opinion that not very much real learning for our
guidance in the field is to be picked up in the hard and fast
instruction of type.

A single season's successes and disappointments in the
open, with a trusty weapon and a faithful dog at heel, will
teach more about sport and wild birds than a year's
rummaging in the home library and patient perusal of authors
who never know an empty day or draw a cover blank. What
judicious books can do is to foster a love for those outdoor
exercises which in turn foster that spirit of resolution and
patience, and strength of wind and limb, which is one of the
happiest distinctions of Englishmen.

Who is there that has not read St. John's wonderful
descriptions of wild fowl clamouring at night in the shallows
of Scotch salt-water lochs without ardently desiring himself
to hear those motley multitudes feeding in with the tide,
and to learn to distinguish their infinitely varied voices —
a language in itself ! Or, who is there who has not burned
to stalk a " muckle hart " in highland fastnesses after a dip
into the seductive pages of Scrope or William Black ?

At best, however, our sporting authors can only teach us

INTRODUCTION. i*

technicalities and nourish a love of out-o'-door life, all else
we must learn for ourselves. Nature is the only professor
to her own great lore of land and water ; her lectures must
be attended personally, and in her own open-air class-
rooms.

Such sketches of English shooting as I have included are
suggestive rather than exhaustive outlines of the phases
of sport they touch upon ; if there is much in them that
is unorthodox, it is just in that I take special pride.
For some of the worst results of British game preserving
every naturalist must have an utter abhorrence. I would
as soon sit on a woodside gate for an hour of a summer
evening waiting with a "rook" rifle ready at hand for a
rabbit feeding out with the twilight from the hazels, as
" grass " a hamper of pheasants outside any Midland autumn
coppice.

These notes should be acceptable also to the practical
agriculturist of to-day, who is surely now wiser than his
ancestors were, and willing to lighten and enliven his some-
what monotonous work by observation of, and a kindly
feeling for, the birds with which his vocation brings him in
constant contact. It is thus I have amused myself, indeed,
for lonely months and years when all other recreation was
hard to come at ; and these observations on bird migration,
habits, and whims, have made pleasant in all weathers the
monotony of Suffolk stubbles, the wild grass moorlands the
Hampshire herdsmen love, and the bleak highland straths,
purple in summer and white and cheerless in winter !

Country gentlemen within the last twenty years have

x INTRODUCTION.

greatly increased their interest in and ,' knowledge of
ornithology. There is no reason why this useful, even
important, knowledge should not descend to landholders
in every degree, and then a good time for the bird will be
at hand.

The notes I have collected on the arts of trapping and
snaring are very curious and far spread. For permission
to reproduce many of them I must thank our leading
sporting papers, The Field, The Sporting and Dramatic News,
Land and Water, Bell's Life, and others, to whom also I owe
many and sincere thanks for the indulgence with which they
have treated my frequent trespassings on their space.

A chapter on grouse moors and deer forests has been
kindly supplied by J. W. Brodie Innes, Esq., Barrister-at-
law.

June, 1887.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. HAWKS AND OWLS ... ... ... ... ... 1

II. FINCHES ... ... ... ... ... 20

III. CHOWS . 52

IV. MAESH BIBDS ... ... ... ... ... 74

V. GROUSE ... ... ... ... ... ... 98

VI. PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS ... ... ... 146

VII. PIGEONS 181

VIII. DUCKS 195

IX. SEA FOWL ... ... ... ... ... ... 221

X. QUILLS AND FEATHERS ... ... ... ... 233

XL GROUSE MOORS AND DEER FORESTS ... ... ... 248

XII. GAME LAWS ABROAD 273

BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND,

CHAPTER I.
HAWKS AND OWLS.

THEIR USE AND MISUSE.

THOSE tyrants of the middle air, the falcons and their kind,
may boast of as much antiquity or as remote a genealogy as
any birds we know of. Over the portals of Assyrian temples
we recognize the familiar hooked beak and commanding
wings, and upon mummy cases of Egyptian princesses who
breathed when the world was six thousand years younger
than it is now the hawk comes out again aggressive and
predominant.

In their relation to mankind they have played many
parts. There is first of all this typification and poetic
emblemism, springing from their keen vision, matchless
flight, and fierce ^courage. This placed the eagle at Jove's
footstool, and suggested him as a fitting bird to ride upon
the standards of ancient Rome round the world. Even
to-day, our great republics have this imperious and regal
bird as their token. Strange anomaly which perches this
autocrat and tyrant of his kind upon the banners of
"universal equality!" As for the poets, it is difficult to
say what would have happened had they been unable to

2 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

draw metaphor and simile from these many-virtued wild
fowl; and half our best families, half the best families in
Europe, have a hawk of one kind or another for their crest.

This suggests the second count upon which the kind
have proved useful to men, that, namely, wherein they have
been associated with him in the pursuit of game — another
link of much antiquity.

The kings of Babylon and Nineveh no doubt knew some-
thing of hawking, while the science is also of immeasurable
antiquity in China and amongst the wild tribes of Central
Asia. With the Normans and their conquest the art was
brought to a fine, chivalrous perfection in this country ;
franklin and baron maintaining their own falconers and
mews, while troubadours filled ballad and ditty with allusions
to "gay goshawks," "gentle faucons," or their kindred.
Then, we take it, it was a good time for all the race, as much
in fashion as their quarry, the pheasants, partridges, and
grouse are to-day.

Next to heraldry, falconry ranked in esteem under Nor-
mans and those who followed them. Only certain kinds of
birds might be kept by certain subjects. For kings there
was the ger-falcon ; for princes, the falcon-gentle, or tercel-
gentle ; dukes had the rock-falcon, and earls the peregrine ; a
baron might use the bastard-falcon, and a knight the sacre
and sacret ; esquires, harrier or lanneret ; a lady, the merlin ;
"young men " had the hobby, and yeomen the goshawk; the
tercel was for a poor man, and sparrow-hawk for a priest ;
" the musket for a holy- water clerk, and kestrel for a knave."

This baronial hawking must have been pleasant enough
sport then, when the Thames ran through eternal groves of
oak and hazel, and the Severn shone in sunlight through
far-stretching birch coppices ; while the Midland and Western
counties, with their great fen lands and open downs, sup-
plied ample preserves for the wild-fowl to fly the falcons at.
But to-day hawking is in abeyance — the pastime of a wise
few who are, moreover, fortunate enough to live where it can

HAWKS AND OWLS.

be practised, on the borders of wide Hampshire downs, or
vast fenceless pastures of such counties as Northamptonshire
and the wolds beyond the Humber. Abroad, in India or
elsewhere, it might well be followed more keenly than it is.

The economical value of vultures and kites as scavengers
or removers of " matter in the wrong place," is a considera-
tion of very little weight to the Englishman of to-day. He
leaves it to his Commissioners of Sewers, and they leave
it to the noble river that stinks through his capital; so
the vultures are not wanted ! Abroad they are invaluable
in this respect, and lesser hawks keep lizards, snakes, and
frogs within due limits of reproductiveness.

Almost the only interest attaching to hawks at the
present time is with regard to game and game preserving.
What a debt of ill-will should the falcons owe to this com-
paratively new hobby that has been their ruin ! We can
imagine a kite, in days when kites were common, wheeling
in easy circles over the open courtyard of some British^
Roman villa, located on the pleasant south coast or Isle of
Wight, and watching with prophetic wonder the praetorian's
black-eyed children feeding and teasing a pair of pheasants,
two of the few, or even the very first in the island. How
well justified might have seemed the kite's harsh laugh
as he took another turn in the blue to glance again at the
fresh importations and calculate on the chances of a successful
swoop through the open corridors ! Who could have fancied
those brilliant but defenceless birds with the ostentatious
length of tail would sweep the enemy overhead from Saxon
skies, making a kite a few hundred years subsequently
a rarer sight than they were that day themselves ? Yet
so it has turned out, to the chagrin of naturalists, and almost
the whole hierarchy of the air has gone with the gledes.
I would like to suggest in these pages (and all our most
recent information tends to justify us) that in many cases
where hawks are ruthlessly persecuted their destruction is
absolutely unnecessary, the despotic barbarity of ignorant

4 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

gamekeepers and the like ; whilst in those cases where a taste
for game unquestionably characterizes birds of prey our advice
would be to strictly limit but not to eradicate the species.

After the kites our two remaining birds of prey, the
lords of their kind, have already reached a Nirvana of well-
deserved protection. The golden eagle is already sacred in
the Highlands, while, as far as the osprey is concerned, most
lairds would rather lose their favourite piper than the
gallant fish-hawk honouring the lonely mountain tarns or
beetling sea cliffs by making them its home.

Next to them, in the aristocracy of bulk, is the pere-
grine falcon. In approaching him I feel all the doubt of
the pleader who has an admirable and indomitable brigand
(a pirate, perhaps, would better fit the character of this
ocean-loving hawk) for a client. Perhaps the only safe
course to take is to throw ourselves on the mercy of the
court, to plead the picturesqueness, the gallantry, and the
patriotism of the peregrine ! That he likes game when game
is handy I cannot honestly deny. Fixing their home on the
higher peaks of some wild and lonely mountain range in
the North of England or Scotland, a pair will make their
eyrie where the gnarled trunk and contorted branches of
a birch or spruce jut out from the cliffs, inaccessible alike
from above or below, and there they cater for their noisy
young with a reckless disdain of tenant's rights and the lord
of the manor, which we acknowledge is shocking. There,
perched on a vantage-point of rock or storm-broken timber,
the peregrine will sit in the sunlight for an hour at a time
watching the heather or the glades in the hazel coppices far
below for grouse sunning themselves or young rabbits coining
out to play. It is surely worth the price of a moor- cock or
two, and an occasional leveret to watch this peerless falcon's
habits, to see his irresistible and unerring swoop that rarely
fails to lay a victim low, and the graceful rise which follows
and saves him from such certain destruction as his drop
seemed to court. • -

HAWKS AND OWLS. 5

Or if lie is away from his own nesting- place, and owns
no watch-tower on the crags, the peregrine will scour the
heather and search the higher glens with an eagerness it
is curious to watch. But his distinctive and peculiar process
is the calm watch from an elevated spot until a victim is
espied, and then a single impetuous rush. The gulls who go
up to moorlands to breed are occasionally harried by him,
wild ducks and waterfowl suffering too. So deadly is the
onslaught of this hawk, whose flight has been calculated to.
reach the figure of one hundred and twenty miles an hour,
that a tiercel has been known to strike the head clean off
a mallard at a single "souse," and has driven a partridge
so fiercely to the ground by the shock of the encounter, that
the bird has rebounded the height of a man.

I have called this wonderfully graceful bird patriotic,,
and he stays with us all the year round, but in the spring
our indigenous peregrines are greatly augmented by arrivals
from abroad. Old Belon, two hundred years ago, gives
a curious account of the incredible armies of hawks and
kites which he saw in the spring crossing the Thracian
Bosphorus from Asia to Europe, a procession swelled by
whole troops of eagles and vultures ; and from Syria and
Africa come many of the birds that are with us all the
summer, to the delight of naturalists.

Upon the sea coast, where the peregrine is generally
found now, he does no manner of harm, contenting himself
with the ample booty sea-ledges or puffin-haunted caves afford.
When a pair have once selected such a fastness over-
looking blue water, they and their descendants will occupy
the same eyrie year after year. When falconry was at the
height of its popularity, these breeding-places were all known
and jealously guarded. The site of a nest was placed under
especial care of the occupier of land adjoining, and they
were responsible by terms of tenure for the noble birds and
their offspring. The loss of a right hand was the penalty for
molesting breeding birds.

6 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

Such hereditary nests there have been at Goathland in
Yorkshire, and Killing Nab Scar, while " Falcon Scar,"
" Hawk Scar," " Eagle Cliff " and such local names no doubt
mark other localities.

The peregrine likes to strike his prey in fair fight.
The following curious story lays stress upon this peculiarity.
" Whilst out shooting with two companions one day in
January, in the county of Cork, we saw," writes a sportsman,
" in the midst of a sixty-acre pasture a curious conflict going
on between a peregrine and what we at first supposed to be
a smaller hawk, but which subsequently proved to be a
woodcock, a considerable number of which birds had been
driven from the coverts by the late heavy rains into the
surrounding turnip fields. As the pair seemed to be coming
towards us we concealed ourselves, in hopes of getting a
shot, behind a bank and hedge whence we could see the
whole performance. The woodcock flew close to the ground
until the hawk struck at him, when, avoiding the stoop by a.
sharp turn, he invariably pitched on the ground until the
hawk had passed ; then rising pursued his flight in the
direction of a thick covet about five hundred yards distant,
until again obliged to pitch in order to avoid a second attack.
This continued until both came within fifty yards of the
bank behind which we were concealed. Here the hawk
" struck " several times at the woodcock whilst on the ground,
wheeling round after each " stoop " to try again. Upon this
the woodcock never attempted to fly, and we could plainly
see his tactics. He was evidently tired, and, sitting well
back on his tail, he presented his long bill against every
onslaught of his enemy, and afforded us the strange spectacle
of a woodcock — by nature a very timid bird — successfully
defending himself from the attacks of a large hawk. The
hawk, either fearing impalement, or, as is the habit of his
species, not liking to strike his prey when on the ground,
avoided coming to close quarters, and always turned aside
when about a foot from the woodcock. After one of these

HAWKS AND OWLS. 7

" swoops " he wheeled a little further off than before, and
of this the woodcock took immediate advantage ; for, twisting
over the bank and hedge, he got a good start and went at
his best pace towards the covert, now about three hundred
yards distant. He passed close to us, but in our anxiety to
get the hawk we refrained from shooting him. The pere-
grine at once mounted high, but out of shot, and pursued his
quarry, now half-way to his haven and going at a much
greater rate than I ever thought a woodcock capable of.
The hawk gained visibly, but finally the woodcock darted
into the thick covert a few yards ahead of his pursuer, who
did not follow him. I now thought the cock would fall an
easy victim to the gun, but not so ; for, getting up very wild,
he made his escape after all without being fired at." Truly
a hard-fought day for the woodcock !

Closely resembling the larger falcon is the common
buzzard ; but there is one certain way to distinguish them.
While the peregrine's neck is marked by a boldly contrasted
black and white collar, that of the buzzard is shaded off
between the two predominant body colours. Both birds are
dark above and light below. In character, however, they
are very different. This latter hawk, the "puttock" of
Essex hinds, is, to tell the truth, somewhat a sluggard in
habits. It is even suggested by Johnson in his Dictionary
" buzzard " carries some indignity with it, and Milton uses
the word as equivalent to stupidity. Morris in his " British
Birds " has reason on his side, however, in refusing to accept
such views. Bewick, one of its earliest detractors, declares
the puttock is no match for a sparrowhawk, but Bewick
was unquestionably misled in this matter.

More a bird of the high woods than the cliff face or sea
shore, no doubt it often takes to a rocky ledge or cleft in
a " scar," but for the most part the nest is found, — or rather
was once found, — in high beech trees and the like, on knolls
and hillocks, in such broad and ample forests as those of
Hampshire or Yorkshire. From these and similar districts

8 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

there is no possible reason why the beautiful plumage and
startling cry of this hawk should be any longer banished.

I am inclined to think that the species of prey most
naturally sought after is the rabbit. It feeds, however, for
necessity has no law, upon a great variety of other food.
It destroys numberless moles of which it seems particularly
fond, as well as field-mice, leverets, rats, snakes, frogs, toads,
the young of game and many birds, worms, insects and
newts. " The way in which the buzzard procures moles is,
it is said, by watching patiently by their haunts until the
moving of the earth caused by the subterraneous burrowings,
points out to him their exact locality, and the knowledge
thus acquired he immediately takes advantage of to their
destruction. His feet, legs, and bill being often found
covered with earth or mud is in this manner accounted for."

These two hawks have often roused the ire of highland
and lowland keepers respectively, but we have mentioned
them somewhat at length because they are amongst the
commonest (if the expression may be used) of our rarer
hawks. Others of their family are hardly ever seen. The
red-footed falcon is a very rare visitor indeed ; the goshawk
keeps himself wisely to the fastnesses of the Orkneys, where
he might well be allowed to take his toll of mountain hares
and rabbits.

The honey buzzard is almost as rare since the villainous
greed of collectors ransacked the New Forest and other breed-
ing grounds for eggs or young " in the down." The marsh
harrier is far less common than it was, though its diet affords
no justification for its destruction. " It feeds itself and
nestlings," says Atkinson, "with young water birds — as its
name suggests. Young water birds may be found in its
haunts, or young rabbits or birds, a few mice or rats doubt-
less being not altogether unworthy of notice to such hungry
customers as four young harpies."

The hen harrier, the blue hawk, is a shade worse in the
game preserver's eyes. Not very long ago I was resting

HAWKS AND OWLS. 9

under a blackthorn bush on a lonely plateau on the Cotswold
Hills when a hare came cantering along the top of a stone
wall, and in close attendance was an old male harrier looking
brilliantly blue in the sunlight,, who swept backwards and
forwards, occasionally stooping at the hare, a full grown one,
in a way that made him wince with fear, but never, so far as
I could see, actually striking him. A worse place for
repelling attacks of a hawk than a stone " dyke " we should
hardly think there could be, yet the hare ambled by within
a few yards, " dodging every time the falcon's wings touched
him, until at last they were lost in a- hollow, and though
I followed at my best pace I never saw how the fray ended."

There can be little doubt but that although game is not
its chief food the hen harrier will tackle anything not too
manifestly beyond its powers.

Sparrowhawks and kestrels hold their own in spite of all
keepers can do. This is partly, perhaps, owing to the fact
that they are not regarded as quite so harmful to game as some
of the larger species, and also because they breed as often as
not in out of the way places, — ivy-covered cliffs, ruined
towers, and the like, where they do not come conspicuously
under game-rearers' attention.

Unquestionably the commonest of all our British hawks,
and with little doubt the most useful, the kestrel, a hawk of
no repute in the old days, is perhaps more numerous in our
shires than all his kindred put together. Round by the
South Foreland and the white Dover cliffs we find them in
abundance, hunting mice and small birds just above high
water mark. There are plenty, too, all down the valley of
the Thames, and especially wherever there are scarps over-
hung with hazel or disused quarries. The bird -does practi-
cally no harm to game. It is almost wholly a fur-hunting
hawk, and the farmer who suffers them to be destroyed
deserves to be overrun with field mice, and to kill something
like a thousand in a day's wheat thrashing, as I have known
to happen where kestrels have been abolished. Small birds

10 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

of all sorts, beetles, and no doubt other kindred foods, such as
worms, slugs, and even frogs perhaps, form this useful red
hawk's food. I cordially commend him to an enlightened
forbearance !

Nor can the sparrowhawk — that nemesis of the finches —
be considered very destructive to partridge or grouse. He is
that dark-coloured bird we see beating the marsh lands, or
mobbed by crows and sparrows as he flies guiltily from wood
to wood. Twice a-year when hedges are thick with migrants
he debouches himself and feeds licentiously on whatever he
will, and for the rest of the time subsists variously on the
changing small birds of the seasons.

He is not popular in the chicken- yard. " A neighbouring
gentleman," writes Gilbert White, "one summer had lost
many of his chickens by a sparrowhawk, that came gliding
down by a faggot pile and the end of his house to the place
where the coops stood. The owner, inwardly vexed to see
his brood thus diminishing, hung a setting-net adroitly
between the pile and the house, into which the caitiff dashed
and was entangled. Resentment suggested the law of
retaliation ; he therefore clipped the hawk's wings, cut off
his talons, and, fixing a cork on his bill, threw him down
amongst the brood hens. Imagination cannot paint the
scene that ensued. The expressions that fear, rage, and
revenge supplied were new, or, at least, such as had been
unnoticed before. The exasperated matrons upbraided, they
execrated, they insulted, they triumphed. In a word, they
never desisted from buffeting their adversary till they had
torn him in a hundred pieces." Maternal feelings, I have
observed, are always extravagant.

As for those admirable birds, the hawks of the night time,
their continual persecution is wanton and reckless. One
correspondent thinks that since " the regular destruction of
owls by gamekeepers and 'others, it is a notorious fact that
field mice have increased to an enormous extent, so much so
as in many instances to do incalculable injury to the ground

HAWKS AND OWLS. 11

crops. As an instance of the good the barn owl does in the
destruction of these depredators, I will mention that on an
evening during the summer I was enjoying a pipe with a
farmer friend of mine, sitting near an old barn, wherein a pair
of owls were then rearing their young. My attention was
especially attracted to them by observing their frequent
arrival, with a mouse on each occasion grasped firmly in the
claw. The supper of the young family that evening consisted,
to my knowledge, of seventeen mice. Can any stronger plea
for the protection of this grand old English bird be urged ? "
And another observes of a kindred bird, the brown owl : "As
an instance of the rat-destroying propensities of the brown
owl, a keeper, in the employ of a large landed proprietor in
an English shire, found at the entrance of a rabbit's
burrow a dead rat for thirteen consecutive mornings. This
burrow last summer was occupied by a pair of brown owls
for breeding purposes, and they then had young ones. We
can scarcely suppose that these thirteen rats were the only
ones destroyed during the thirteen days ; but if they were,
surely an occasional leveret or other game is but a small
compensation for the benefits conferred by the destruction
of a rat a day. Brown owls will now be protected on this
estate by the gamekeepers. May this good example be
followed by others ! "

Groom Napier, a first-class authority, tells us of the long-
eared owl, " the food of this species in April I have ascer-
tained to be beetles, bats, and mice.

" Barn owl. Two owls contained dormice, water rats, and
bats. Three contained field mice and beetles.

" Tawny owl. Two of these birds contained bats, but in
one other case a young rabbit and two mice were taken from
a stomach.

" The white owl is rather destructive to the young
rabbits of Abbotsleigh Down, Hunts. But we may place
all the owls, on the whole, as A 1 among the farmer's
friends."

12 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

His subsequent and careful investigations have more
than carried out these first examinations.

The whole of our ten species of owls, most of them rare
and all scarcer than thej should be, deserve protection.
"No other bird exceeds them . in service to man, silent
unobtrusive service, and we have very few birds in Britain
to compare with them in beauty of plumage."

The " gamekeeper's tree," or the old-fashioned barn-door,
are always shocking sights to an ornithologist who appre-
ciates the labours of the feathered kind, and recognizes their
multitudinous usefulnesses, but they never touch his feelings
so deeply with their array of nailed up victims as when
he notices the owls there, and knows how unjustly Ascalaphos
and Nyctimene have died. I look forward to a better time
for both the hawks of the day and those of the night.

The sportsman avenges on birds of prey of all kind his
real or fancied injuries by the severe judgment of the gun,
but where falcons are needed for training to the delightful
sport, not yet quite extinct in many parts of the globe,
resource must needs be had to other and ingenious methods.
A bait of some sort, either a living or a dead bird, is always
essential. The hawk, unlike many of his weaker brethren,
is not to be allured by his vanity, credulity, amativeness, or
simple gullibility ; it is hunger alone that will bring him
from the clouds to the netsman's toils.

The mode of capturing falcons amongst the Arabs of
Syria, for instance^ is as follows. Supposing the Arab to
have noted some particular place in which hawks abound,
such as ruins or rocky places, he provides himself with
a pigeon or partridge, or any bird that they may be fond of.
Fastened round its body is a very fine net, and when the
sportsman has placed his decoy in some convenient spot, it
is not long before its struggles attract the attention of some
wandering bird of prey which swoops down upon it and
is* entangled in the net. The captor, who has been hiding

HAWKS AND OWLS. 13

near, then rushes out, and seizing the victim places a hood
on its head, after which he carries it about with perfect
safety on his shoulder. As long as deprived of sight it will
make no attempt to escape ; and when after some months of
careful and skilful training it is flown again at game, it
exhibits the greatest fondness for and faithfulness to its
captor.

Hawks are caught in an ingenious but cruel manner in
the Deccan. A stick, about a foot in length, is thickly-
daubed with bird-lime, and some small bird, generally a dove,
is tied to its centre. When the hawk is seen the unhappy
captive has its eyes sewed up to make it soar, and is released.
The enemy pounces upon it ; its wings strike the limed twig
and it falls to the ground. Hawking in India is not practised
to anything like the extent it might be. A cast of falcons
should be in the compound of every Englishman's bungalow,
and there is ample scope for the spread of a delightful
pastime in many of the Indian stations where other sport is
distant or hard to obtain. Natives take kindly to the
amusement, and become good falconers. This is the manner
in which one native "mew's man," purveyed his hawk's
daily food. " Having distilled some extraordinarily sticky
brown- coloured bird-lime, called * goolur,' from juice of the
burr, or great Indian fig-tree, he would endue with this
adhesive compound the end of a long thin stick, exactly
resembling a full-sized fishing-rod. With this weapon over
his shoulder Mahomed would go forth till he met with some
sparrows chattering on the eaves of a low-tiled roof. At
once he would hold the rod so as to be fore-shortened towards
them, and then, having got within range, he made a sudden
lunge, when one or more unfortunates would infallibly be
seen adhering to the end of the stick. These were removed
without being killed, and their heads inserted between his
fingers, with their bodies outward, till his hands looked as
though he had large boxing gloves on. I learnt how to do
this myself well enough to catch birds out of the hedges,

14 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

but I never acquired sufficient accuracy to work amongst the
roofs, where an error of half an inch would be destruction
to the wand — a valuable weapon, and one difficult to replace."
Our own kestrel at home is such a terrible enemy to the
professional bird-catcher, pouncing down and carrying off
his trained decoy birds, that the following trap has to be
frequently used against him. A white napkin to attract the
hawk while in the air, is spread upon the ground and
fastened down at the corners with little sticks. In the centre
of this is a small peg to which a live sparrow is secured with
a few inches of string. Slender twigs are then placed all
round the napkin, so as to prevent the hawk from attacking
the decoy from any position but above. Two long and
slender limed willow twigs are then lightly fixed in the
ground, one at each end of the cloth, so as to form an arch
over the sparrow. When the kestrel strikes down at the
sparrow his wings touch and stick to these limed twigs, and
as they at once fall from their positions, he rolls helplessly
over and over.

Sparrowhawks are also taken very often in this way,
but more commonly among lesser varieties in the famous
but seldom described " square net," which is thus mentioned
by Sir John Sebright : "A net, eight feet in depth, and of
sufficient length to enclose a square of nine feet, is suspended
by means of upright stakes, into which transverse notches
are made, and on which notches the meshes of the net are
loosely placed, so that as soon as a hawk strikes against it
the net readily disengages itself and falls. The square
enclosure is open above, and within it a living bird, usually
a pigeon, is fastened as a bait. The colour of the net should
assimilate as much as may be with surrounding objects, and
the material should be a fine silk. The merlin, the hobby,
and the sparrowhawk, may be taken in this way ; but the
larger varieties, viz. gere-falcon, peregrine, and goshawk,
are seldom to be thus trapped, and must be captured either
by the bow-net, or the hand-net." The yearly migration of

HAWKS AND OWLS. 15

hawks in Austria and elsewhere gives much opportunity for
the use of such snares, and quite a trade is carried on in live
falcons, or in their heads, for which antiquated municipal
laws offer a premium to the conscienceless pothunter !

Sometimes these passage hawks are taken by huge hand-
nets, similar in principle to the landing-nets used in fishing,
but very much larger. With these the hawk is caught by
the falconer, who is concealed near a pigeon tied by a string
to his hand, and suffered occasionally to fly a short distance.
The bird attracts the hawk, who makes a swoop, and is
dexterously caught by the falconer while its attention is thus
fully engaged. But one of the most successful nets in use,
the bow net, has only been mentioned in two or three works,
though there has been much curiosity on the subject. The
method and working is so clearly given in one of Beeton's
excellent little handbooks, I am tempted to reproduce it here.

" Lanius excubitor is the bloodthirsty shrike's classic
appellation. Excubitor, or sentinel, applies to the bird's
vigilance in watching that no other bird, savage as himself,
approaches its nest. Falconers take advantage of this
peculiarity of the shrike to make him useful in the practice
of snaring hawks. Towards the end of the year, in October
and November, the hawks are on their passage to the
southern and warmer climes of Europe ; and at this season
the falconer can secure the most birds. He builds a low turf
hut in the open country, with a small opening on one side ;
at about a hundred yards distance from this hut, a pigeon
(usually a light- coloured one, to attract the hawk while
soaring high in the air) is placed in a hole in the ground,
which is covered with turf, and a string is attached to it,
reaching to the hut. Another pigeon is placed in a like
position on the opposite side, at the same distance from the
hut. At a dozen yards from each pigeon a small bow-net is
fastened to the ground, which is so arranged that the falconer
can pull it over, by a small piece of iron attached to the net,
and leading to the hut. The string by which the pigeon

16 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

is held passes through a hole in a piece of wood driven into
the ground, in the centre of a bow-net. The falconer has
also a decoy-pigeon, in a string at a little distance from the
hut, and half-a-dozen tame pigeons are placed on the outside
of the hut, which, on the sight of a hawk, immediately take
shelter within. The next, and most important adjunct in
the business, is the butcher-bird. He is placed on a hillock
of turf at a short distance from the hut, and is fastened by
a leather thong. The falconer, however, does not sacrifice
the life of his servant, but humanely makes a little hole
in the turf, into which the bird can escape when it chooses.
Having thus everything prepared, the falconer has nothing
to do but to sit in the hut, and watch the motions of the
grey shrike. Habit has sharpened the sight of this little
bird, and he descries his natural enemy long before the
falconer would be able to see it. At first, if a hawk is
approaching, the shrike exhibits a certain uneasiness, a
drawing-in of the feathers, and a fixed gaze in one direction,
the meaning of which the falconer knows well. Even when
the hawk is at the distance of three or four hundred yards, the
butcher-bird will scream with fear, and retreat into the hole
in the turf. The falconer then prepares his decoy, and
draws out the pigeons where the bow-nets are placed, which,
by fluttering round, soon attract the hawk, who swoops at
them, and is caught in the snare. Not only does the butcher-
bird give its master warning of the approach of the hawk,
but lets him know the species by the greater or lesser degree
of alarm which it exhibits."

That magnificent vulture of South America, the great
condor of the Andes, is not exactly the kind of game that
would appear to lend itself most readily to the trapper's art.
" Two of these birds will attack a cow or llama and kill it
with their terrible beaks and claws," says the Rev. J. Or.
Wood, and, added to this strength and prowess, there is its
unparalleled power of flight, which enables it to hunt the
preserves of half-a-dozen states, cross vast, wild mountain

HAWKS AND OWLS. 17

ranges in search of a new meal, or hang suspended on the
watch for prey at a height when even its monstrous expanse
of wing is reduced to an. almost invisible point. Yet carrion
and " a naked savage " bring this monarch amongst birds to
grief. They are taken alive by the Mexican Indians and
half-breeds in a manner which, though simple in itself,
requires both nerve and strength in the trapper. The sole
apparatus consists of a newly flayed skin of cow or buffalo.
This the Indian places on the ground hair downwards on
some bare spot, and then, crawling underneath, turns over
on his back and waits. In a short time a condor comes
overhead, wheels round and descends on the hide. Immedi-
ately his talons touch the skin the Indian seizes the legs,
and, starting up, overwhelms the bird and binds him with
thongs kept ready ; a process, however, which usually meets
with a very stubborn resistance. It is just this weakness for
rank flesh that is the betrayal of all vulture kind. All
through the East it seems as though Nature had kept
especially in mind the scavengering duties of these her too
hideous children, and meat with that gameyness which is
produced by a few days' exposure to a tropical sun is an
irresistible attraction to them. The Andes type is no better.
The wandering tribes take it by placing a dead horse in
an advanced state of nnsavouriness within a high wattle
enclosure, and noosing the glutted birds when they have fed
too freely to rise. And in much the same way, according to
Tschudi, in one of the Papuan provinces there exists a deep
natural funnel-shaped cavity in the side of a certain valley.
This is utilized by the Indian as a ready-made trap for
capturing condors. They place a dead horse or mule on the
brick of this hollow, and the pecking and tugging of the giant
birds presently roll it down the declivity. The birds follow,
and being heavy and gorged, are unable to ascend again, clubs
and stones finishing off the disgusting revellers to the last one.
Mr. Willard Schultz, writing to the American Forest and
Stream, gives a curious picture of the superstitions attendant

c

18 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

on the procuring of eagle plumes for the head-dresses and
robes of " braves." He says : " Another ingenious method
of hunting, practised by the Blackfeet Indians of North
America was the Pis-tsis-tse'-kay for catching eagles.
Perhaps of all the articles used for personal adornment eagle
feathers were the most highly prized. They were not only
used to decorate head-dresses, garments, and shields, but
they were held as a standard of value. A few lodges of
people in need of eagle feathers would leave the main camp
and move up close to the foothills, where eagles are generally
more numerous than out on the prairie. Having arrived at
a good locality, each man selected a little knoll or hill, and
with a stone knife and such other rude implements as he pos-
sessed dug a pit in the top of it large enough for him to lie
in. Within arm's length of the mouth of the pit he securely
pegged a wolf skin to the ground, which had previously
been stuffed with grass to make it look as life-like as possible.
Then, cutting a slit in its side, he inserted a large piece of
tough bull meat and daubed the hair about the slit with
blood and liver. In the evening, when all had returned to
camp, an eagle dance was held, in which every one partici-
pated. Eagle songs were sung, whistles made of eagle wing-
bones were blown, and the ' medicine men ' prayed earnestly
for success. The next morning the men arose before day-
light, and smoked two pipes to the sun. Then each one told
his wives and all the women of his family not to go out or
look out of the lodge until he returned, and not to use an
awl or needle at any kind of work, for if they did the eagles
would surely scratch him, but to sing the eagle songs and
pray for his good success. Then, without eating anything,
each 'man took a human skull and repaired to his pit.
Depositing the skull in one end of it, he carefully covered
the mouth over with slender willows and grass, and, lying-
down, pillowed his head on the skull and awaited for the
eagles to come. With the rising of the sun came all the
little birds, the good-for-nothing birds, the crows, ravens and

HAWKS AND OWLS. 10

hawks, but with a long, sharp-pointed stick the watcher
deftly poked them off the wolf skin. The ravens were most
persistent in trying to perch on the skin, and every time
they were poked off would loudly croak. Whenever an eagle
was coming the watcher would know it, for all the little
birds would fly away, and shortly an eagle would come down
with a rush and light on the ground. Often it would sit
on the ground for a long time preening its feathers and
looking about. During this time the watcher was earnestly
praying to the skull and to the sun to give him power to
capture the eagle, and all the time his heart was beating so
loudly that he thought the bird would surely hear it. At
last, when the eagle had perched on the wolf skin and was
busily plucking at the tough bull meat, the watcher would
cautiously stretch out his hands, and grasping the bird
firmly by the feet, quickly bear it down into the cave, where
he crushed in its breast with his knee."

In Scotland the eagle, it is said, is often captured alive
by a method very similar to those employed in taking its
kindred in South America. A circular space, twelve feet in
diameter, is enclosed on a spur of the hills haunted by the
birds, and a peat wall six feet high built round it, with one
small opening at the level of the ground, over which a strong
wire noose is suspended. The bait, a dead sheep or lamb,
is placed within, and the eagle coming down to it, feeds
largely — not wisely, perhaps, but certainly too well — and,
like many another of superior creation, feels, after the
repast, disinclined for any unnecessary exertion, so casting
round for an easy place in the barricade, he espies the low
archway, and attempting to leave by it is caught round the
neck and killed — at best a poor end for so gallant a bird.

20 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

CHAPTER II,

FINCHES.

AMONGST COEN AND FRUIT.

IN every country in the world, and in all ages, small birds
have been conspicuous for good or ill. They have been
observed, utilized, petted, and abused in turn by every race
under the sun. The Pharaohs owned gilded aviaries 011 the
Nile when history itself was only in bud. Assyrian monarchs
had a leaning to "the fancy," and the calm grandeur of
Babylonian halls echoed, very probably, the pleasant ditties
of caged warblers and cooing of doves. Chinese emperors
have amused themselves with the brilliant plumaged finches
of their flowery land for innumerable ages ; while bird catch-
ing and caging is as old as any other institution from the
banks of the Ganges to those of the Nile.

Evidence, classical or mythological, of injury done to
human industry by these industrious little spoilers is equally
old, from the Hitopadesa to Herodotus and downwards.

But it is not with diminutive pillagers in lavender or maroon
who "spoilt" Egyptian millet crops two thousand years ago that
we have to deal, or with any of their kindred who take toll
of rice grains, or feed in endless clouds where bamboo harvests
are littering the jungle ground. The page or two I have to
devote to them is rather about their comparatively few and
for the most part sober relatives of these islands, the sparrows
and chaffinches of the stackyards, the bullfinches and cherry-
loving thrushes of the orchards.

FINCHES. 21

Legislation lias already and wisely confounded the bitterest
antagonists of grub-eating small birds by affording them
protection during their breeding season from the 1st of April
to the end of August, but even this brand new protection
may be endangered unless those who are mostly interested
exercise a wise spirit of investigation and caution in hearing
the carpings of certain critics so remorselessly dissatisfied that
surely they will find fault with the municipal arrangements
of Paradise if they are ever in a position to speak practically
of them. Only the other day an indignant and no doubt well-
meaning farmer rose at a local meeting and deduced from a
tome of calculations he had made that small birds had in one
season eaten grain in England to the value of nearly £770,000.
What could be more shocking than such a consideration with
wheaten loaves at sixpence the quartern ? On the face of it,
it would seem to justify her Majesty and her peers, spiritual
and temporal, in forthwith ordering the complete and effectual
extermination of every thrush or finch in the land. Thus
Frederic the Great declared war against the sparrows, because
they were too fond of the cherries for which he also had a
weakness. The sparrows disappeared, and within two years
the cherries followed. Not long ago in one department of
France, where every citizen loves la chasse, and the small
birds find it difficult to hold their own, the loss on wheat
from the raids of insects during one twelve months was no
less than £160,000. This is the reverse of the matter, and
serves to show, if it shows nothing else, how wide are the
differences between the contending parties.

In general the happy mean lies between the two extremes.
There is a balance in Nature which cannot be kept too clearly
in sight. The great Mother knows best the mechanisms of
her own establishments. This is why, perhaps, hawks lay
but one egg to every two or three the birds they prey on
hatch ; and why rabbits and mice, the most universally perse-
cuted of rodents, are amazingly prolific.

If legal protection is afforded to grain- eating species,

22 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

while sparrowhawk and kestrel, the natural checks on their
numbers, are ruthlessly destroyed, it may well happen they
become numerous past all indulgence, and an imperative
necessity arises to artificially readjust the balance.

Those of our English birds of farm and garden most
usually regarded as harmful are as follows, and to their
names are attached a few notes on their principal food at
different seasons as shown by post-mortem examination.
Some of the information is taken from Mr. Groom Napier's
admirable little work, "The Food, Use, and Beauty, of
British Birds," some from my own observation, and the rest
from researches of various observers, reports of the Canadian
Agricultural Commission, and the like.

The first birds in the usual sequence are —

The fly -catchers, of whom nothing but good can be said.
All three kinds visiting England, live during the whole twelve
months on gnats, " those motes that sting," on hymenopterous
insects, and a host of diminutive enemies to cattle and
plant life.

The thrushes, coming next, some six species in all, are not
so unquestionably innocent.

The missel thrush, relies during December, January, Feb-
ruary, on holly and mistletoe berries, on haws, earthworms,
slugs, snails and anything of the nature he can pick up.
This is varied all through the summer by many caterpillars
and a little garden fruit, especially gooseberries. In the
autumn he has to return to wild berries, and is keen on
snails and slugs.

Fieldfares and redwings are not here long enough to do
any mischief. They pillage the hawthorn hedges and ivy
bushes of Nature's alms, and take a certain number of snails,
etc.

Song thrusJies have been well abused, nor are we prepared
to say the abuse is undeserved. They are unquestionably
fond of fruit, currants being their chief delight ; but work
energetically in our behalf at all other seasons. A friend

FINCHES. 23

of the bird thinks " the thrush, like the blackbird, is doubt-
less extremely useful in moderation, when its numbers are
in proportion to the extent of farm or garden ground. When
they are very numerous, however, they are induced to feed
upon fruit ; but our experiences tend to show that they prefer
insects and mollusca to fruit. The same remarks which
apply to the thrush apply also to the blackbird."

Everywhere but in the orchard the mavis is useful ; even
there a remembrance of the pecks of slugs he has gorman-
dized, the great earthworms he has drawn from the ground
and shaken to death by the hundred, like any terrier, and
those piles of snail shells round his favourite anvil stone,
should stay the destroyer's hand.

Blackbirds are not quite so black as chance and fruit
growers have painted them. All I have said of the former
bird applies to this. In the kitchen garden they are in-
valuable, if fruit is netted from them a short time before it
is plucked.

The ring ouzel is an inhabitant of the wilderness, where
it enjoys unlimited small snails and the insect life of the
uplands.

Warblers. — That subdivision, known scientifically as the
Sylvidcc, contains a numerous host of unimpeachable friends
of the agriculturist or gardener ; and friends, moreover,
which by a rough system of reasoning he values. The hedge
sparroiv feeds under the hedges all the year round on seeds
of weeds and small insects; robins take, perhaps, a small
quantum of currants to vary their animal dietary, but they
may safely be left in the protection of legend and favouritism.

Whinchats, wheatears, and the like, if not amongst " the
unco' guid," are useful in their way, while ivJiitethroat and
wood wren destroy plenty of noxious insects.

Titmice. — Over these dainty little pinches of feathers the
battle of the birds has waged long and hotly. They have
been accused of stripping trees of buds (and especially fruit
buds) in a reckless and wanton manner. But in nearly every

24 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

case it has turned out that the buds pulled off were already
the home of a larva, which would effectually have prevented
their arriving at maturity. Their natural food is to be found
on trees and amongst herbage, and consists of all those
multitudinous insects that, if allowed to multiply unchecked,
would devastate our crops and wither up our flowers.

" Let, therefore, the titmouse be permitted to follow its
avocation as it chooses, and to range the fruit trees, fields,
and gardens unchecked. For, in trutb, the little bird is
working with all its might in our behalf, and is attacking
our worst pests at their very root and source. Its micro-
scopical eye discovers the eggs of noxious insects which
have been deposited in spots where they will find plentiful
nourishment when they are hatched, and in half-a-dozeii
pecks it will destroy the whole future brood. The eggs of
the terrible leaf-roller caterpillar, so tiny but so destructive,
are devoured in vast numbers, as are those of that plentiful
nuisance, the little ermine moth," writes the Rev. J. GK
Wood, and we can fully endorse what he says.

Wagtails, the Motacillidce of naturalists, do good service
in thinning the swarms of summer insects ; we doubt, in fact,
whether any one has ever called their usefulness in question,
while their ways are dainty and their gracefulness con-
spicuous.

Larks. — Against skylarks stands the indictment of scratch-
ing newly sown grain out of the soil, and the little excava-
tions made for this purpose are often to be seen during the
spring months. Wheat or barley properly drilled in, we
should fancy, w^ould be far beyond their reach. Nor is it
difficult to argue in their favour that even a chance of
feeding thus must extend over a very limited period. At
nesting time, when many mouths have to be fed, grain of
all sorts is out of reach, and resource must be had to the
abundant and ever present harvest of seeds from weeds,
wireworms, insects, etc.

The chaffinch feeds " in January and February 011 seeds,

FINCHES. 25

grains, and berries ; in March on seeds and insects ; in
April on seeds, green food, and insects; in May on seeds
and insects. Almost all finches that live on seeds and
berries feed their young principally on insects," writes Mr.
Groom Napier. "In June the chaffinch feeds on insects,
berries, and fruits ; in July and August the same, with the
addition of a little more seed; in September, October, and
November on seeds, berries of many sorts, and grain."
During these autumn months it haunts stackyards with
flights of sparrows and searches for scattered grain. It will
descend in flocks amongst newly sown turnip seed, and does,
undoubtedly, a good deal of mischief there.

In allusion to the frequent notices of the formidable
gooseberry grub in the columns of The Field, that excellent
observer, Mr. Doubleday, of Epping, observes that a brood
of young chaffinches will soon clear a gooseberry bush from
these grubs. It is, therefore, the obvious interest of
gardeners to protect and encourage chaffinches in the
breeding season, instead of taking so much trouble to
destroy them or frighten them away. It must be admitted
that this beautiful and most cheerful spring songster helps
himself to our radish seed as soon as it has germinated ; but,
without attempting to palliate this species of petty larceny,
may we not regard its services in destroying the gooseberry
grub as a full equivalent ?

The greenfinch. — This bird is fond of seeds, and has an
extraordinary and insatiable appetite. His value, or the
reverse, to British agriculturists is not very clearly defined.

The goldfinch is not numerous enough to be of much
economic consideration. One peculiarly good point he has,
namely, a passion for downy seeds of any sort. This was
a happy thought of Nature's, and the love of the goldfinch
for the pernicious thistle (or rather its wind-scattered seeds)
and the like, suggests him as being as useful in regard to
numbers as he is unquestionably handsome.

The bulfinch strips our cherry trees in a very lawless

26 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

manner of their buds, and is consequently persecuted by
fruit growers. Fortunately he is not numerous, nor is he
difficult to scare away, when this milder treatment is adopted.

Starlings are unquestionably useful. They scour our
meadow lands, effecting as they go a wonderful clearance of
wirewonn and the detestable "daddy-long-legs" in all its
stages. Amongst cattle, and even riding on the backs of
sheep, they are still useful, having a taste for the parasites
of such animals. On marsh lands they feed largely upon
small mollusca, worms, etc. Occasionally a raid is made
upon cherries, but there is no other indictment to be brought
against them.

The swalloivs are worthy of our fullest friendship, I think
most people will allow. Leaving out of consideration the
facts they are the symbol of summer, and typify the very
poetry of motion, their existence is spent in keeping within
bounds the myriads of winged insects, which might other-
wise overwhelm us as Pharaoh was overwhelmed when he
had refused for a fourth time to set free the Israelites !

The sparrow, it will be noticed, we have reserved for the
last. The antiquity of his transgressions is beyond dispute.
Perhaps he fell firstly with the prince of the nether world
himself. In the most remote Egyptian hieroglyphics he is
represented as then old in iniquities, bearing a name, sa-me-di,
signifying "bird of destruction," and an outline on tomb
and obelisk indicating death and scarcity. This is a point
for his opponents which they have overlooked. His creden-
tials have been faulty from the beginning, his passport has
never been signed by the lords of creation ; and the farmer
of to-day, in offering a reward for his head, is only inheriting
a long and classic feud !

It is true the sparrow does not seem to care much for his
disrepute and outlawry. He is equally cheerful " on the house
tops " as rusticated. I doubt if he was happier, guided by
the ribbons Aphrodite held and fed [on gilded seeds of
Asphodel, than he is now, sharing the swine's breakfast and

FINCHES. 27

dining on a dunghill. There is a storytelling how sparrows
were nearly exterminated in Germany by a heavy premium
paid for their heads which enlisted the enthusiasm of
every knabe. In Norway and Sweden, too, for one reason
or another, I noticed some time ago that sparrows were
almost absent from homestead and stubble ; but in the
main Fringilla domestica would seem to thrive on persecu-
tion. " It would be a pity," thinks one tender-hearted
ornithologist, " if the sparrow were completely extinct."
I must say there seems but little prospect of this. Only
a few months since seven thousand heads were capitated
for by one club in one English shire, " and yet there seemed
to be but little difference in the number of birds about,'*
plaintively observes the Judge Jefferies of that ornithological
Star Chamber. No doubt in such cases as this there is
a difference, but other sparrows come in from neighbouring
districts and fill up vacancies.

The transgressions of sparrows are many. They eat corn,
they shell peas, they spoil fruit, they encourage plumbers
by building in ill-chosen places, they bully martins and
swallows (a serious offence), and monopolize their nests;
straw is drawn from thatched roofs, crocus, as well as other
flowers, are pulled to pieces, better birds are driven away
and much mess made. The indictment is heavy, and, what
is worse, I fear a true bill must be returned in every case.
I say this reluctantly, for I love the sparrow's pleasant chirrup
as he basks in the first sunshine of the spring, and have
seen in him every trait of love, anger, vanity, cunning, and
resource that the bird world can produce. He is an epitome,
in grey and brown, of natural uncultivated life.

As for his actual food it is infinitely various. One
"Monograph of the Sparrow," recently published, puts it
down as corn, green or yellow, and nothing but corn ; but
this is foolish prejudice. Mr. Groom Napier makes it more
various : " January, February — seeds, grains, refuse, insects ;.
March — green tops, seeds ; April — insects, green tops ; May —

28 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

larvae, seeds, green tops ; June, July — fruits of the garden,
seeds, insects ; August — grain, insects, berries ; September —
grain, berries ; October, November, December — grain, refuse,
seeds, berries."

" The proprietors of gardens have a special reason for
gratitude towards the sparrow. Gooseberries are a favourite
fruit, whether fresh or preserved, and we are too often doomed
to see our trees lose their leaves, and the crop of fruit fail,
solely through the attacks of the gooseberry-fly, the dark
grey grubs of which are so plentiful and voracious. These
grubs are very pleasing to the sparrow's palate — though, by
the way, it seems rather strange that a bird should have any
particular sense of taste, considering the formation of its
mouth and the substances on which it feeds — and accordingly
are killed in great numbers by that indefatigable bird. For
many successive days the sparrows may be seen filling their
beaks with gooseberry grubs, and bearing them off to their
young.

" The wire worm, again — a pest that is perhaps more
universally dreaded than any other of the insect tribes — is
a favourite food of the sparrow ; and it has been well calcu-
lated that, though the sparrow is said to eat a bushel of
corn annually, it saves a quarter by its depredations among
the insects. The sparrow, in fact, has recourse to that most
effectual system for ridding the plants of the destructive
insects which, when performed by man, is termed * hand-
picking,' but which cannot be achieved by man with one
hundredth part of the success that attends the bird."

The sparrow hates cats. When the poultry are whistled
together at feeding times, numerous small birds join the
dinner party. Pussy then creeps up and hides herself
amongst the hungry group, by this time quite used to her
tactics. Watching her opportunity, she suddenly darts upon
her victim, which she stealthily carries off in her mouth,
returning warily again to the charge. Taking advantage of
this, the most effective way to scare birds from fruit trees is

FINCHES. 2£

this: From two pegs fixed in the ground stretch a piece
of wire, then procure a cat or kitten three parts grown, put
a leather collar on it, and attach ifc to the wire by a slip knot,
also of wire, so that the animal can at will range the whole
length of the pegs. The presence of the cat, combined with
the rattling of the wire at its every movement, have proved
a capital protection against the feathered marauders. For
this to answer properly, however, the trees should be in rows,
as in the case referred to, and the pegs fixed at the extremities,
the wire thus running parallel to them.

The sparrow, in fact, needs to be kept in bounds rather
more than any other bird.

The whole matter is one in which caution and reasoning
are especially necessary, since there are side issues and cross-
bearings on every point. The purely insectivorous birds, for
instance, might be thought, like Csesar's wife, to be above
suspicion ; yet it could be shown that, by eating a thousand
forms of life that prey on more injurious insects, they are
doing very dangerous labour, and many other instances could
be given. One thing only is certain, the majority of birds
do us yeomen-service, however much some few may transgress,
and any tampering with the often ridiculed but nevertheless
essential "balance of nature" is a matter deserving the
gravest and most serious consideration on all sides.

BY STACK AND STUBBLE.

While there can be no doubt we have lost, and are losing,
some of our larger indigenous birds — the eagles, the kites,
the bustards, the ravens, choughs, and such like — there seems,
011 the other hand, little recorded diminution among the
smaller feathered fauna of copse and hedgerow, in spite of
the unreasoning warfare just alluded to. We still have the
nightingale, " that sovereign of song " that Spenser loved,
the sparrows King Alfred fed, the "throstle, with his note
so true," who sung to Shakespeare in pleasant Avon wood-

30 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

lands ; and, in fact, nearly every one of those lesser birds
enshrined in poet's verses, or enbalmed in our rich and his-
toric folk lore, with which song or story has made us familiar.
Perhaps the finches of the underwood and the wild birds of
marsh and mountain top owe their immunity from extinction
to their shyness and retiring habits. The whitethroats might
be as scarce as bitterns were they equally noticeable ; but, as
matters stand, who cares to molest the former — that delicate
little fragment of drab and cream-coloured feathers that
hunts in the nettle forests and hides its grass-built nest
amongst densest tangles of briar and bramble ? We might
have obliterated the ouzels, again, as we have the auks, had
they been half so valuable for food or so dull-witted as the
gare-fowl. This, and much more of the same kind, goes to
show that when left to their own devices Nature very rarely
suffers any species of bird or beast to be " wiped off the slate."
It is only when man, the lord and bully of creation, comes
upon the scene that the balance is disturbed; races and
species going down before his insatiable appetites and endless
vanities. It was not Nature, for instance, who did away with
the amiable but heavy dodo ; it was South Sea whalers, and
all for the poor reason of sharpening their sailor's knives upon
the stones his gizzard contained. The birds of paradise are
dying to deck the dresses of savage tribes, and humming-
birds to fringe fans and glitter on fair but thoughtless heads.
Penguin flesh was very good eating the cods-men of the
North Seas knew, and the fact was ruin to the species ; and
just so the buffalo is being recklessly converted into glue
and pelts for portmanteaus, until we are within measurable
distance of his extermination ; and the price of elephants and
elephant ivory going up every day, as they become scarcer
and scarcer in their Indian or African jungles.

Nature retaliates, it might seem, by multiplying unduly
some smaller birds and beasts, not to mention lesser insect
plagues. But leaving locusts and larva out of the question,
even the naturalist must recognize sometimes that certain

FINCHES. 31

manner of birds or beasts are unduly redundant. There is
the rabbit in Australia, for instance, working shocking havoc
on the sheep runs, and living in a very Arcadia where stoats
or weasels are unknown, and ruining biped and quadruped
with its ceaseless fecundity. The sparrow in America is as
bad, and the Senate has arraigned, condemned, and excom-
municated him several times, without, however, any percepti-
ble effect on his cheerfulness or numbers. We forbear to
enlarge upon the devices prepared for the beguilement of this
little scourge of Christendom, as his enemies call him, since
the erratic propensities of the sparrow not only lead him to
trespass on every man's land, but bring him sooner or later
into every man's trap. For this reason, and the fact of his
small mercantile value, few lures are devoted to his special
circumvention. Of those that are, however, the " bat-folding-
net " is one of the most destructive. This consists of two
twelve-foot bamboos, slightly bent and joined at their thinner
ends, having a net of small mesh stretched between them
nearly down to the lower or handle ends, where the net is
turned back for a foot or so to form a trough-like pouch.
When in use one man holds the lower ends of the bamboos,
and applies the net, spread between them to ivy on walls or
trees, haystacks, eaves, etc., and wherever the birds may be
sleeping at that hour of the evening; while another man
with lantern and stick beats the foliage, etc., and the
affrighted birds dash from their roosts to meet the wall
of net, falling after a brief struggle into the open pouch
below.

Barring these perky little finches that Yenus loved, we
have in this country few kinds of birds that assemble in great
flocks, and can thus be killed wholesale either in revenge for
fancied injuries done or for "the pot." Abroad it is other-
wise. In Germany, for instance, they are overrun with
starlings. On November evenings the fowlers of the Upper
Rhine watch for the arrival of the great nights of starlings.
A little cloud is seen on the horizon, which gradually

32 B1ED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

approaches and grows into a black spiral column, which at last
almost darkens the air and deafens the ears with the chirping*
of its innumerable host of birds. After a few spiral turns
they suddenly perch in a body on the trees and reeds, which
appear laden with leaves and fruit, and bend under their
weight. The fowlers mark the spot where they settle, and
then set up an immense curtain of nets on poles in an advan-
tageous position, and so contrived that they shall fall when
a cord is pulled. This done, they leave the chattering throng
to settle down into their roosting-places, while they them-
selves go home to supper. At midnight, however, they
return, and posting themselves round the roosting-place of
the birds, suddenly raise a tremendous shout, and with long-
sticks and stones drive the frightened birds towards the net.
The whole flock rises en masse and makes for the net, which, as
soon as they beat against it, is pulled down, and the whole
flock enclosed. They are left to be strangled in the meshes
or drowned in the marsh till daylight, when the fowlers again
return, to take them out and dexterously twist the necks of
those which are not dead already. Sometimes as many as
ten thousand are caught at one fall of the net, but not more
than five or six thousand are taken, the others being allowed
to escape, for fear of glutting the market. They are taken
to Strasbourg and sold at the rate of 3d. to 4td. per dozen.

There can be little doubt that though this may be a good
speculation for those immediately concerned, it is a ruinously
bad one for the Rhine lands at large. " Perhaps there is no-
bird that does so much good to the husbandman as the star-
ling," says Swaysland. He is the terror of every sort of
grass .or corn devouring grub and pupa. The inquisitor of
the meadows, he believes in summary jurisdiction, and the
wireworm or grub hauled into his presence must expect very
little mercy from that beak. Sometimes they come to be
regarded as a nuisance, or available ingredients for a pie in
our own southern shires A correspondent writes: "As
owner of a larch plantation of over one hundred acres in

FINCHES. 33

Somerset, I can give the following plan that I used to adopt
some twenty-five years since, when my larch trees were
young, by which plan I caught hundreds of birds, including
starlings, fieldfares, and other similar birds, on. any dark,
still night. One man carrying, say, four sheep bells, one
man with a lantern, and another a long light stick, one
sheepdog, enter the plantation after seven o'clock, the first
man shaking the sheep bells, which drowns all sound of
footsteps ; the second man turns the light on the trees, when
the birds can be seen, apparently stupefied ; the third man
knocks them down ; the sheepdog retrieves them. This may
be called poaching ; bat where the birds roost in thousands
they may be used as food, and certainly are excellent
eating."

And another of these, we must think, ill-advised land-
owners suggests we should have some openings made by
stripping the trees in two or three places right and left
through our plantations so as to admit of many clap-
nets, and then send a person to quietly beat the birds
towards the nets, when we shall capture a score or two, as
starlings do not rise and fly away, but flutter along the
branches.

These birds migrate, unobtrusively but widely, though
the fact is not generally recognized. There can be little
doubt the greater part of those flocks seen on our marshes
and downs during the winter have come from Norway and
Sweden.

Though starling pate may seem a poor substitute for
pigeon pie, the truth is, nearly all small birds are more or
less good food. Nothing could seem less appropriate for
this purpose than the swallow tribe ; yet Buff on tells us
swallows roost at the close of summer in great numbers on
alders by the banks of southern rivers, and are taken in vast
quantities to be eaten in some countries, as Spain and
Silesia ; and again we read, " The martins grow very fat in
autumn, and are then very good to eat. They are taken

D

34 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

very largely at Alsace, in nets;" adding that these birds,
like all the swallow tribe, are excellent for the table when
young and fat.

The Spaniards — who eat all sorts of "little game," in
season and out of season, with no regard for plumage or
habits — capture bee-eaters and rollers at night, by going
round and pouring water into holes in banks and trees where
they roost, at the same time holding a net over the entrances,
into which the affrighted birds speedily dash. When out on
these expeditions, both Little and Scops owl are frequently
captured in the same way, or even with the hand, owls and
rollers alike appearing strung up above the stalls of the
next day's market-place.

Birds in Spain are taken when roosting on the ground by
parties of two, the one carrying the bag and also a bell,
which he tinkles monotonously, whilst the other carries a
light ; the idea being that the bird supposes it is only some
vagrant bell-wether, and remains till the captor with the
light puts his hand upon it. My belief in the usefulness of
the bell is limited ; that of the light is an established fact.
Yet the bell is used in this manner in many countries. In
Somersetshire and Andalusia we have noted its use. The
Lincolnshire fenmen employ a bell when netting plovers ;
and the lark, another very edible and marketable bird, is
betrayed by its sound in Prance. The method is disgusting
in its unvarnished brutality. A dark night being chosen,
two men are required. One has a bell which he constantly
jingles in one hand, and a lantern in the other, with which
he throws a light along the furrows of the newly turned
corn-lands where the quarry roosts. The other, who goes
ahead, has a stick, at the end of which is a short strap of
heavy leather, and a sack. When a bird is seen cowering
under the light it is approached cautiously, and a single
stroke from the leather " flap " extinguishes its life without
spoiling it for to-morrow's market. The professional manner
of catching larks is by means of a trammel net. This is

FINCHES. 35

about thirty-six yards long and eight wide. At each end.
of the net there is a pole, and the lower edge is weighted
so as to drag along the ground. Men holding the poles and
raising the front of the net tramp forward. If they are
lucky all the birds at roost on the ground covered will be
taken, the net being lowered to the ground whenever
captives are felt or heard to rise against the meshes. Moon-
light is fatal to the sport, and wet nights equally so, for
then the net is too heavy to drag. It is an improvement
if the men holding the end poles each lead a horse by the
bridle, as his footsteps — to which the birds are accustomed
— drown theirs; or the men sometimes ride the horses, as
we have seen represented in old prints. In the winter, when
the snow lightly covers the ground, larks may be taken in
considerable numbers by horsehair nooses. This is accom-
plished by driving pieces of wood into the ground so that
some three inches are above the surface, and they should
be about three yards apart ; then, after the fashion of a
laundress's clothes-line, stretch twine from stump to stump ;
now make nooses in lengths of horsehair, and suspend them
from each line, so that the running loops dangle freely,
about two inches from the surface of the ground; scatter
black oats about the noose, and larks, in seeking to pick it
up, will find themselves held captive by the horsehairs.
Clever though these designs are, gourmands might sigh in
vain for larks on toast, were it not for the clap-net — that
deadly device in skilful hands. Two nets, twelve yards
long (and, when open, covering the ground twenty feet
wide), are neatly laid down upon the ground. It is impos-
sible, without a diagram, to explain the rough, but very
effective, machinery by which a pull of the rope held by the
birdcatcher will make those harmless-looking nets spring
into the air, and catch the birds, either on the wing, or on
the ground. The nets act so quickly, that the eye can
scarcely follow their spring. Anything on the wing crossing
them four feet high will be shut in instantly. It is better

36 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

to catch the bird before he has time to settle ; if he touches
the net with his feet, he is off instantly.

The next process is to put out the " brace bird." This
bird always wears his brace, with a swivel attached, con-
sisting of a piece of string made into a kind of double halter,
and put over the bird's head, and the wings and legs are
passed through, the feathers falling over, and rendering
it invisible. The brace bird is then put on his " flur-stick ; "
this is a straight stick, which, by means of a hinge at its
lower end, is made to rise and fall at the will of the bird-
catcher by means of a string.

Then, when any bird is seen coming, the flur-stick is
gently pulled up, the brace bird all the while standing on
the stick is made to hover with his wings and show himself.
This, of course, is to attract the wild birds to the place,
which purpose is also attained by " call birds " put out
round the net in cages, whose notes, especially when there
are others of their kind in the neighbourhood, attract great
numbers. Thus, no doubt, are procured those melancholy
festoons of Nature's choristers we see in the gamedealers'
doorways. Personally, we think that good as this little bird
may be at table, aux trufles, legislation should sternly pro-
scribe his presence there, or even his entombment alive in
any of the cruel little cages with which some of us associate
him. He should be as sacred to us music-loving nations
of the West as doves were to the Greeks or the Ibis to
Egyptians. This same " seraph of the sylvan choir " is a
bird of strong passions, and often stirred by love or hate.
The fowler, with the gross practicalness of his kind, knows
this, and takes a mean advantage. If the season suggests
the predomination of the gentler sentiment, then a female
decoy, whose wings are tied and a lime twig placed over her
is used. The male in paying his court thus gets hopelessly
entangled.

But if there is a note of challenge in the song we hear
coming from under the clouds, " then," says a learned fancier,

FINCHES. 37

"start at break of day, carrying with you a well-trained
singing lark. Tie its wings, so that it can do no more than
hop about the ground, and under the string slip the ends of
two lengths of flexible whalebone, the projecting ends of
which must be well smeared with bird-lime, and cross each
other over the decoy's back. Watch where a lark rises, and
put down your bird near the spot, the wild bird will drop
like a stone on the back of the trespasser, and it is caught
by the lime."

One more method of taking these diminutive wild-fowl —
a curious and sportsmanlike method we might almost say —
if it does not take us to the end of our available notes,
will at least probably exhaust a reader's patience : " To-day
some bird-catchers brought a number of pipits for sale,"
writes an Indian traveller. " The method of capture was
ingenious. Sheltering themselves under a screen of leaves,
they would creep to within about thirty feet of where the
birds were running about. They then push forward a series
of bamboos, which fit into one another like the joints of a
fishing rod, the top one being provided with a pronged twig
smeared with bird-lime. This, on coming in contact with
the bird, of course holds it fast, until the native runs up and
wrings its neck ' in the name of Allah the Compassionate ! ' '

Small birds as food are much more popular amongst
other races than amongst the Anglo-Saxon. Every con-
tinental market-place is at times an ornithological exhibition.
Under the olive-groves of the ^Egean Islands, and all through
the Mediterranean, finches and warblers at all times of the
year are liable to get themselves into nets or toils of varying
make.

Just outside Port Said I have seen something novel in
the way of bird- catching. Two Arabs, with casting-nets,
were walking along the canal bank, here dotted with patches
of scrub a foot or eighteen inches high. Marking down some
unfortunate small bird, they stalked and cast their nets over
the bush on which it had taken shelter, seldom making a

38 BIBD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

bad shot, though their " bag " could not have been a heavy
one, as none of their victims were larger than a titlark;
several were the tiny fan tail- warbler (cisticola), so plentiful
throughout Egypt, particularly on scrubby ground anywhere
near water.

The wheatear is almost the only other edible small bird
we recognize in these islands. Gilbert "White, it will be
remembered, remarks, they " appear at the tables of all the
gentry around Brighton and Tunbridge who entertain with
any degree of elegance ; " and elsewhere we read, " It's
favourite haunts in this country are the South Downs, and
in the neighbourhood of Brighton, Lewes, and Eastbourne
great numbers are taken in traps, which are set on the downs
cut out in the turf. The habits of the birds in running to
shelter on the least alarm are considered in the nature of the
snares set for them, which are made after this fashion : Pieces
of the turf are taken up in solid masses, and propped up over
the holes from which they are cut; thus a sort of hollow
chamber is formed, holes are left at the opposite end of the
space formed beneath the turfy cover, and in the hollow
itself nooses are set vertically, supported on small sticks ;
the birds rushing in for shelter are caught by their necks in
the nooses, and fall an easy prey to the setter of the trap.
Quantities of wheatears are thus taken and sent to the
different markets, where they realize from 9d. to Is. 6d. each.
Their price has very considerably increased of late years ;
from 6d. to Is. a dozen used to be given formerly in a
plentiful season. Then the shepherds on the downs were
the chief trap makers, capturing sometimes from fifty to
sixty dozen in a day, and a custom then prevailed of people
visiting the traps, taking out the birds (if there were any
caught), and leaving a penny in the trap as a reward for the
shepherd — a somewhat primitive method of proceeding
which would not hold good at the present time."

The late Frank Buckland declares the best trap for wheat-
ears is the common nightingale trap baited with a meal worm.

FINCHES. 39

But for our part we think there is a very good time ahead
for the small birds, and probably an enlightened public
opinion will learn to recognize in them faithful allies on the
farm lands, and delightful associates in the uplands and
wildernesses.

Abroad they take a very practical interest in their small
game, especially in the French mainland, as also in the
Mediterranean islands. From Corsica, for instance, vast
quantities of birds are sent to the Gallic markets, and they
are indeed the most popular "game " in the island.

"AMONG THE COESICAN SCRUB."

We, that is to say, W and myself, on one occasion had

finished supper, and were smoking, in grim discontent, over
a roaring fire of fir-cones in a little Corsican inn, the howling
north wind rattling the badly joined window frames, and the
rain pelting on the glass like so much small shot, as indeed
it had done with scarcely a pause for seven days, every-
thing feeling dull and uncomfortable, even a few feet from
the blaze, when a footfall sounded in the passage, and the
next moment our door was thrown open by a much be-
wrapped Frenchman, who immediately advanced with out-
spread hands, giving us a tremendously cordial greeting
after the fashion of his country, and without more delay
than served to divest monsieur of his two wet overcoats and
uncoil a dozen yards of " comforter " from his neck, we
refilled our pipes and plunged into the subject that so much
interested us.

Monsieur R was our chief reliance for sport in the

island, whither we had come to spend the winter. We had
made his acquaintance on board the French steamer, and as
he was a well-known chasseur, he had promised to show us
whatever sport there was to be had in Corsica, hence his
welcome appearance on the wet evening of which I write.

40 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

" Could we not get a moufflon ? " asked my comrade. But

B shook his head. It was out of the question in such

weather as this.

"What then?" we said, somewhat anxiously. Forth-
with, our guest propounded an idea he had formed that we
should have a rough day in the macchie and river estuaries,

after (and W heard it with a blush !) the very small game

in which continental sportsmen delight, varied by perhaps a
duck or two, — in fact, anything we came across, until such
time as the clouds chose to lift from the hills and give us a
chance of searching their summits for better game. This
was the best he had to offer us. Though not much, it was
better than hanging about the hotel verandah, smoking in-
different tobacco, and wondering where on earth the sun-
shine we had come so far to find had got to. It was there-
fore agreed on, and an early start the next morning being
arranged, we said good night, and " turned in," in a much
better frame of mind.

Half -past eight a.m., and the light clatter of wooden
shoes on the red tiles outside my room roused one even
before the fille-de-chambre's tap on the door, and the
ostentatious clatter of her hot water can became audible.
A little while later, we two Englishmen met in the coffee-
room, where we were soon joined by R , who pointed out

the happy fact that it was a glorious morning, with a lovely
sky, and every prospect of fine sport before us.

Breakfast over (and on such occasions one is apt to make
short work of it), our mules were announced at the door.

We, therefore, strap up the game bags (which R , to whom

we left the provisioning of the expedition, has filled so full
of lunch and bottles that they can only be fastened with the
greatest difficulty), and when this is over, lighting our pipes,
we sally out to our steeds in the courtyard, ready saddled,
their head-gear bedecked with numbers of little red tassels
which they shake to keep off the flies. My two companions,
who have beasts of discretion, mount without trouble, but

FINCHES. 41

mine is of a different mould, and wheels this way, and that,
taking " snips " with his teeth at the trousers of the by-
standers, and discharging sundry kicks that enlarged the
circle of spectators with remarkable quickness. So I wait
till he settles down for a minute, then rush into close
quarters, and before he can move a leg, I am safely "on
board " with every intention of staying there. Then away
we go, our two men, with the guns and a couple of dogs,
following behind as fast as they may, our steeds cantering
along down the narrow village street, scattering the old
women and children on every side, and creating a vast panic
amongst the long-necked chickens.

Once we get clear of the little Corsican capital the blue
Gulf of Ajaccio bursts on us, brilliant as a sapphire fresh
clipped from its mother rock ; here and there are feluccas
stealing about its calm surface with long white sails — fishing
perhaps, or off to the coral grounds at the head of the gulf.
On both sides of the lovely bay the land slopes upwards,
terraced with dark-f oliaged lemon groves, or left unreclaimed
in the wild dominion of prickly pears and cactus, giving the
hill-sides a strangely mottled appearance, as cultivation and
Nature thus struggle side by side. Far away to the north-
west, where the blue water ends, Monte Botondo rears high
over the valleys and plateaus, its head still crowned with
heavy snows, the remnants of last winter's storms. Not
only was the view fine, but the air was delightful after the
rain, and the bright sun overhead seemed to put new life
into the small birds along the roadside, and I could not help
lingering behind the others, occasionally, as the road turned
about amongst glorious gardens of orange trees, every twig
of the forest of dark-leaved trees heavy with green or golden
fruit, each leaf and blade wet with dew and rain that flashed
in a hundred colours as the sunlight glanced down from
above. An orange garden has always been a wonderful
sight to me !

Half-an-hour's riding brought us to a branch road, down

42 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

which we plunged and pulled up at an old ruined chapel,
shaded by a large olive tree. Here begins oar shooting
ground, so we shoulder our cartridge bags, load up the guns,
and, leaving one man in charge of the lunch, set off with the
other and the dogs for the open macchie, or the close-leaved
and densely planted shrubberies of wild myrtle, arbutus, and
leutiscus that clothe nearly all the higher ground in Corsica
with a delightful canopy of evergreen verdure. Amongst
the various sweet berries of these shrubs astonishing hordes
of blackbirds and thrushes revel all day. We put them up
on all sides, to the great satisfaction of our French companion,
who began peppering away at the petit gibier, and we, with
a little hesitation, followed suit. It was pretty enough
shooting, however unorthodox. An infinite variety of brisk
little birds rose from the irregular growth of arbutus, and
with a couple of flicks of their wings w^ere over the bushes
and out of shot in an extraordinarily short space of time.
Nothing but the quickest of snap-shooting was possible,
and our light guns, and special small loads of powder and
shot, had to be very "straight" to keep up a creditable

average. "W , the deadly on grouse, scored several misses

when the fun began ; of course I did no better ; while B

led us up the rises, fusilading as he went, as though we were
storming a Russian battery !

Where the arbutus berries were thickest a perfect cascade
of small birds, thrushes, blackbirds, and pipits rose on every
side. "No wonder there is so little game in the country,"
said my companion, looking at me ruefully as he began his
third score of cartridges, " if much of this sort of thing goes
on ! " But I pointed out to him it was only an experiment,
as I much wanted to know where and how the French
markets were supplied with their small birds, and he sighed
and bowled over two thrushes right and left.

A modification of this process is practised in the Ionian
Islands, and a correspondent has penned a pleasant account
of it, which I cannot resist reproducing.

FINCHES. 43

" Far different is the course adopted in the Greek Islands,
for so soon as the middle of October arrives, may you expect
vast nights of thrushes, with which are mingled a few of the
missel thrush (called here on the principle of everything
large coming from Africa, the Barbary thrush). When it is
fully ascertained that these birds have been seen in numbers,
which is always the case by the 20th of October, then every
one is bitten with the desire to go into the olive-groves to
' whistle for thrushes.' As this is rather a curious proceed-
ing, and opens up a new phase in thrush character, I cannot
do better, perhaps, than describe a morning expedition in
one of the Ionian Isles, on which occasion I was inducted
into the ceremonies. It was towards the end of October
that I started for the fern-covered, woodcock-haunted glades
of Gorino, in company with a Greek gentleman skilled in
' bird murder.' How well I remember how gloriously, the
morning dawned, the early grey shadows softening the
harsh outlines of the forts under whose guns we passed, ere
winding up the steep hill upon which the picturesque little
village of Potamo is placed. From this elevated spot the
view was magnificent; far away below us lay numberless
olive groves, over the tops of whose trees could be seen the
grey still waters of the harbour, and the shores of the
Emarantine Island now gilded here and there with the awaken-
ing beams of the sun, which was driving the vapour in clouds
from the bosom of the sea. Salvador's high crest yet
wreathed in mists ; its sombre slopes clothed with the ever
verdant holly and ilex, while it seemed yet summer, so calm
and warm was the air, its silence unbroken save by the
mournful whistle of the curlew on the sandbars below, or
the harsh chattering notes of the wary jay in the thick trees
above us ; around and about were mossy little dells thickly
clothed with high bushes of myrtle and laurel, the velvet
sward around luxuriating in the dew that our hasty
passage brushed from off the brown tangle of herbage
which served as shelter for the ^sby woodcock. On we

44 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

journeyed, through ravines, past hill-sides where the crimson
fruit of the arbutus, called here * Frooli di Montagna,' or
mountain strawberries, tempted us to linger awhile, past
vineyards where the sere and rapidly dying leaves augured
little as yet for that purple cluster which would depend from
every branch when the heat of summer had again clothed
them with verdure, past the orange trees and their now
small unripe fruit hiding amid glossy dark green leaves,
until some miles had been traversed ; and we stood at last,
before the sun had risen high enough to dispel all the night
mists on the far-off mountains, on the summit of a hill over-
looking the sea, from which we expected the thrushes to
arrive. We were not the only tenants of the spot we had
selected, however, as there were two or three countrymen
stationed under the cover of as many trees. My friend now
produced his whistle, which was a round hollow piece of
silver (though mostly constructed of copper) about one inch
in diameter, convex on one side, and concave on the other,
with a hole right through the centre. The concave part is
placed in the mouth, pressing against the teeth, and by
inspiring the breath, and modulating the tones with the
closed or open hands, as the case may be, a very perfect
imitation of the song thrush's note is the result. This the
arriving or newly arrived birds hear, and imagining that it
proceeds from the throat of one of their species, alight in the
trees which surround and conceal the treacherous imitator,
and quickly fall a prey to the ready gun. So infatuated are
they, that enormous quantities are killed by this method
early in the season ; in fact, I know one person who shot one
hundred and four, besides other birds, to his own gun in
one day.

" In this particular instance the effect was wonderful, for
the whistles had not been sounding long before high up in
the clear air, some half mile away over the sea, some tiny
specks appeared. ' Thrushes ? ' queries my friend of another
posted a few yards from him. This ascertained, the whistling

FINCHES. 45

proceeds more vigorously than ever. The voyagers near us,
they appear now to waver in their flight, and hover together
in the air; this indecision is, however, overcome by a few-
persuasive notes from the call, and they descend into the trees
with an undulating sweep. Theirs, alas ! is no happy welcome
to a foreign shore. Bang ! bang ! go the guns almost simul-
taneously, and five or six lay on the velvet turf ; the rest take
to flight, but are followed and nearly all shot in detail, for
while the fatal whistle sounds they may be approached, with
a moderate degree of caution, and will sit with their heads
on one side and their bright eyes peering into the under-
wood, until the shooter gets almost as close as he likes to
them."

To return to our personal adventures. When we had shot
enough small birds for a good store of pies, we got monsieur
to come on to the borders of an overgrown wilderness of tall
bamboo- like reeds, forming a dense jungle of many acres in
extent at the estuary of a small river flowing into the gulf.
Here we turned in the wild Corsican dogs, and got ourselves

ready for whatever sport the fates might send us, W going

round to the far side, while the other two guns stayed on this.

The first thing to rise was a duck, which E. promptly

" potted " at fifteen yards' distance, and retrieved in person
with a very fair imitation of an Indian war-whoop. Two
other ducks were put up from the thicket of waving stems,

and we heard W get off both barrels, as the birds went over

to his side. Then came a pause, owing to the dogs having
struck work and disappeared, to be found after a quarter-of-
an-hour's whistling a couple of hundred yards back, busy
lunching on the remains of a dead horse. Of course they
were " reproved," and then we started again, but the walking
was very poor, at one time all bog or mud reeking, as we leapt
from one spongy tussock to another, with foul malarial taints,
again sand like that of the sea-shore, or worse still, a vast
desert of rounded pebbles such as continental rivers are fond
of depositing when they get a chance. However, we trudged

46 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

on this varied surface, getting in the first hour about a dozen
shots at ducks, of which only seven were successful, owing to
the birds hardly giving us a chance in the thick cover, and
then the reeds gave out, and our forces met where the lagoon
narrowed up to the mountain torrent that had given it rise.
Here we rested for a moment to fill the pipe of peace, but
this necessary operation was hardly done when the sharp ears
of the Corsican guide caught the cry of some partridges
higher up, and though likely to be "red legs" and great
runners, we set off after them at once, getting two as they
rose from under the side of a rock, the others — if there were
others — making good their retreat to the nearest strong cover.

Forthwith W 's enthusiasm for partridges rose to a high

point, in which I backed him up, for the lovely sweet-
scented macchie was much superior to the marsh below ; so
we changed our duck-shot cartridges for smaller shot, and
marched into the red legs' territory.

A lovely shooting ground it was — not particularly easy to
work, but delightful from an aesthetic point of view. Noble
hill-sides gleaming and warm under the bright Mediterranean
sun, dotted about with clumps of olive and oak, over which
the kites and hawks swept in circles, frightening out — as the
shadow of their wings passed along — whole herds of small
birds from the deep foliage of the myrtles and arbutus.
Gardens of orange and peaches, just coming into flower, luxu-
riated on the warm southern terraces ; here and there the
white walls of a farm-house peeping out from amongst the
verdure or the little peaked roof of a wayside chapel, in which
the image of a saint standing under a ceiling of blue, spangled
with golden stars, called on the passer-by to drop on his knees
and breathe a prayer. Amid this charming hunting ground
we strayed all the morning, taking things rather too easily
for making much of a bag, but picking up a hare, three or
four partridges, and a brace of quails out of a bevy of which
we ought to have got more ; but we were not on the look-out
when they suddenly rose and dodged round a rock with their

FINCHES. 47

pretty chirruping cry, affording us only a very quick snap
shot.

Then we lunched under a wide spreading cork tree, with
the blue Gulf of Ajaccio extended far and wide from the low
ground at our feet, and the pale snow-fields of the Corsican
Alps glittering at our backs. Thanks to the care of monsieur,
who had prepared it, the meal was only too complete, and he
now presided, beaming over the array of everything the
hungry sportsman could desire : fascinating pies of myrtle-
fed songsters and cold game from the hotel chief's larder to
eat, while for drinking there was the bottled beer of the
Saxon, and the light wine of the Gaul, honey stored by up-
land bees, smelling of mountain pastures, and brought down
from far inland by peasants, who had also supplied their
goats' milk cream for us to eat it with ; and when all these
dainties had been disposed of there came a glass of Chartreuse
to wind up with. Truly a Frenchman understands the science
of eating. Such a lunch, " though it might be magnificent,
was not war," or rather shooting, and, need I add, that when
it was over we smoked a pipe or two with great delibera-
tion, and then coming to the somewhat tame conclusion
that we had done nearly enough shooting for the day, con-
tented ourselves with strolling homewards along the beach,
getting a couple more ducks and three or four hares from
a stony bit of half -reclaimed land that bordered the sea
shore.

There is not much to be said for Corsican sport. To
make bags of any size it is necessary to go very far inland,
where the best shooting is found. As to the famous moufflon,
or wild sheep of the island, I have been after them once or
twice, but it is much to be feared their day is near its setting,
as they are well nigh extinct.

Thrush hunting here in our own country is regarded as
a fit amusement only for country bumpkins, or at most a
pastime for Master Tommy home for his Christmas holidays,
and revelling in the delights of a new gun — a pleasant alter-

48 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

native for him, perhaps, from hunting cats in the shrubbery
with his sister and the terriers; but abroad the matter is
different. In Italy and Spain the orange groves and olive
wastes are depopulated of useful small birds, as we have
seen, and Gould, in his "Birds of Great Britain," gives
a graphic account of " La Tenderie " in Belgium. " The
thrush is a great source of amusement to the middle and of
profit to the lower classes during its autumnal migration.
Many families of Liege, Luxemburg, Luneberg, Narum,
parts of Hainault and Brabant, choose this season for their
period of relaxation from business, and devote themselves
to the taking of this bird with horse-hair springes. The
shopkeeper of Liege and Yerviers, whose house in the town
is the model of comfort and cleanliness, resorts with his wife
and children to one or two rooms in a miserable country
village to enjoy the sport he has been preparing for with
their help during the long evenings of the preceding winter,
in the course of which he has made as many as from five
thousand to ten thousand horse-hair springes, and prepared
as many pieces of flexible wood rather thicker than a
swan quill, in and on which to hang them. He hires what
he calls his Tenderie, being from four to five acres of
underwood about three to five years old, pays some thirty
shillings for permission to place his springes, and his
greatest ambition is to retain for several years the same
Tenderie and the same lodging, which he improves in
comfort from year to year. The springes being made,
and the season of migration near, he goes for a day
to his intended place of sojourn, and cuts as many twigs,
about eighteen inches in length, as he intends hanging
springes on. There are two methods of hanging them: in
one the twig is bent into the form of the figure 6, the
tail end running through a slit cut in the upper part of
the twig. The other method is to sharpen a twig at both
ends, and insert the points into a grower, or stem of under-
wood, thus forming a bow, of which the stem forms the

FINCHES. 49

string below the springe, and hanging from the lower part
of the bow is placed a small branch, with three or four
berries of the mountain-ash (there called sobier) ; this is
fixed to the bow by inserting the stalk into a slit in the
wood. The hirer of a new Tenderie three or four acres in
extent is obliged to make zigzag footpaths through it, to
cut away the boughs which obstruct them, and even to hoe
and keep them clean. Having thus prepared himself, he
purchases one or two bushels of the berries of the mountain-
ash with the stalks to which they grew, and which are
picked for the purpose after they are red, but before they
are ripe, to prevent their falling off ; these he lays out on
a table in the loft or attic. The collection of these berries is
a regular trade, and the demand for them is so great that,
although planted expressly by the side of the roads in the
Ardennes, they have been sold as high as £2 the bushel ; but
the general price is five francs. We will now suppose our
thrush-catcher arrived at his lodgings in the country, that
he has had his footpath cleared by the aid of a labourer,
and that he is off for his first day's sport. He is provided
with a basket, one compartment of which holds his twigs,
bent or straight, another his berries; his springes being
already attached to the twigs, he very rapidly drives his
knife into a lateral branch and fixes them, taking care that
the springe hangs neatly in the middle of the bow, and that
the lower part of the springe is about three fingers breadth
from the bottom ; by this arrangement the bird, alighting
on the lower side of the bow, and bending his neck to reach
the berries below him, places his head in the noose, and
finding himself obstructed in his movements, attempts to fly
away ; but the treacherous noose tightens round his throat,
and he is found by the sportsman hanging by the neck,
a victim of misplaced confidence.

" The workman, who at this season earns a second harvest
by this pursuit, carries on his industry in wilder districts,
or he frequently obtains permission from his employer to

E

50 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

set springes in his master's woods. In this case, he supplies
the family with birds, which are highly appreciated as a
delicacy, especially when almost covered with butter, with
a few juniper berries, and some bacon cut into small dice
and baked in a pan ; the rest, of his take he sells at from
5d. to Wd. per dozen.

" ISTo person who has not lived in the country can imagine
the excitement among all classes when the Grieves arrive.
If the morning be foggy, it is a good day for Grieves ; if
bright, bad Tenderie ! The reason is obvious : when the
birds arrive in a fog, they settle at once in the woods ; if
bright, they fly about seeking the most propitious place for
food. I may observe a singular feeling of honour is en-
gendered by this pursuit. Nobody will think of injuring
his neighbour's Tenderie ; a sportsman would carefully avoid
deranging the springes. If, when shooting in your own
covers, a few are taken for the table, you would hang a franc
piece conspicuously in an empty springe for every dozen
birds taken. The law is very severe on poachers who place
a springe on the ground to take partridges, woodcocks, or
snipes ; but if three feet above ground, the law says nothing,
and save as a trespasser, the placer of springes in the trees of
a wood not his own property would not be punishable. The
number taken is prodigious — as many as one hundred and
fifty thrushes have been found executed in a Tenderie in
one morning. The younger members of families of the
highest ranks commonly follow this amusement before a
gun is placed in their hands.

" It may be readily imagined that before five thousand
springes are set in a Tenderie of four or five acres, a fortnight
or three weeks will have elapsed, even should the grocer, the
linendraper, or publican, be assisted by his wife and children.
The amusement is common to all the family — wife, boys, and
girls. Many a small tradesman eats little else during his
vacation at his Tenderie besides Grieves and Buem. From
Liege to Tilf , thence to Ayvale on the rivers Meuse, Outhe,

FINCHES. 51

and the Amblere to Chauspritaine on the Vesdre, where the
rivers are for miles shut in by precipitous banks, covered with
low woods, scarcely an acre is unlet for Tenderie during the
months of August, September, October, and November.
The first fortnight of August is occupied in preparations,
the rest of the time is the harvest of Grieves."

52 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

CHAPTER III.
CROWS.

AMONGST THE BOOKS.

THERE could not well be a thinner excuse than that which
justifies the shooter's intentions as he goes out at the season
of new green leaves to ravage the homes of his ancestral
servitors the rooks. He says, perhaps, as he fills his pockets
with cartridges, something about the need of adjusting the
balance of Nature, and of the damage the young "crows,"
already noisy in the avenue outside, will do presently to the
spring corn. Ten days ago had you asked him, his opinions
were all in favour of the dusky birds, and he recognized that
their plumage is but a physical chance, and not the livery of
sin some have pretended. And a fortnight hence he will
acknowledge that they do yeoman service on grass and plough,
searching with restless inquisitiveness for grub and wireworm,
and giving all and sundry of these and such other small but
powerful enemies of the farmer the shortest shift. Yet for
the brief period intervening between the feathering of the
young birds and their incorporation with the wandering flocks
of their parents, squire and farmer are remorseless, and per-
secute them with a vigour not a little remarkable. But very
likely the fact that this is a chance of burning powder coming
after an abstinence and before another spell of the sportsman's
Ramadam, accounts for the change of principle. Moreover
there is delight simply in being out of doors in " the leafy
month of June."

GROWS. 53

Rooks have a peculiar aptitude for selecting for their
home a spot of dignity and beauty. They are always asso-
ciated with stateliness and repose. No one ever found their
nests in a disreputable spot — such as a gooseberry bush for
instance, where we have known a magpie to build — among
the stony curls of a heroic statue like ribald jackdaws, or
even among chimney stacks with the storks. Just as en-
gravers give a little "local colour " to an Indian etching by
bringing in a palm or two, and accentuate Arabian sands
by a camel in the background, so an English artist never
finishes up his cathedral precincts or surroundings of a ruined
manse without throwing in the nucleus of a rookery and a
bird or so coming home with sunset. No doubt these birds
have built in the plane trees of Cheapside, where, by the
way, kites built only a hundred years ago, in Gray's Inn
Gardens, and in a few such other places, but this does not
spoil the argument. Where we find them most numerous
and available for sport is in the avenues leading to lordly
mansions throughout the shires, and in the great elms that
the foresight of our ancestor planted behind grange and
castle to keep off the north wind, and to shame, perhaps,
shallow, sceptical descendants, who live as if their lives
marked the bounds of time, and who, cutting down, plant
nothing for those who come after.

There are countless traditions regarding the cunning and
feudal instincts of the rook. No money-lender ever had
a greater interest in the succession of great estates than
these sable retainers of long-settled families. One authority
tells us gravely they will desert a rookery that is about to
change human ownership, and that a tenantless mansion
where familiar faces have once been they abhor. Foresters
more prosaically aver they can tell when an elm has the wet
rot even sooner than the woodpecker, their distant relative.
To bark their trees will drive them away, and so may a ring
of paint round the bole, as surely as though with human eyes
they associated that fatal mark with axes and woodmen.

54 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

But where some subtle auguries of inconvenience, of which
we bipeds cannot fathom the origin, do not frighten them
off, they are very tenacious of their homes. All through
the winter of their discontent, when the early barley is as
snug under the frost-hardened ground as gold in a usurer's
chest, and grubs of every kind are at a premium, they
keep an eye upon the wigwams that swing in the wind
over the bare avenue, and a little later on, when the elms are
thick with their unacknowledged copper- tinted inflorescence,
they hold a curious festival in the tops — perhaps an "at
home," suggested by matronly forethought, " to bring the
young people together," — when the whole clan reassembles
for a day or two, and " small and earlies " are held with
vivacity and success. Then nests are overhauled and even
added to — a spectacle that prompts the wandering stranger
to write to his favourite paper, pointing out that the winter
must surely be one of the mildest on record. But those who
live among rooks know that nothing comes then of this
freak. In April they set to work in earnest, industry and
jealousy reigning supreme in the colony ; faggot upon faggot
of sticks is fetched and crossed over last year's foundations,
tufts of wool and the like are gleaned from sheep-walks and
pastures; and the last touch is put to the structure by an
egg — three or four perhaps — no doubt in the opinion of each
enamoured couple the most delightfully shaped, the most
delicately blue-tinted, and the most artistically mottled of
any in the park.

But we have almost forgot to shoot our "branchers" in
the interest of the steps leading to their hatching. The
rook battue is the most popular form of this sport. The
squire asks his friends down to the number of a dozen or
so, according to the number of trees and nests, and for
a day, or perhaps two days, the fun is fast and furious. The
happy time to hit upon is just when the " squatters " are
venturing upon their trial flights. Were they younger they
might keep to their nests, where it is barbarism to shoot

CROWS. 55

them ; and were they older, then the shooting would come
to a speedy termination by the whole colony migrating with
natural expeditiousness to less disturbed regions. As it is,
some of the stronger birds go out to the pasture oaks, and
we have to go after them, wading for a shot waist deep
through wet, sweet-scented meadow parsley, or deep swathes
of grass almost ready for the scythe, before we come back
with our trophies, as likely as not wet through. But what
seems to our selfishness the choicest sport is to be alone this
early summer weather with our trusted little rifle only for
a companion, and license to be as unsociable as we will.
Then we can lie at leisure on the wide blue carpet of the
wood hyacinths, or, sauntering down the drives, come un-
observed upon many a curious bit of nature, and witness
many a little comedy or tragedy of the woods that the
powder-burners up at the hall never dream of. In this way
we have spent many a summer morning, lying perhaps con-
cealed among the green commas of the unwinding bracken
and the thin covering of the new leaves, while the rooks
fed their young ones on the low trees about us, all unsuspect-
ing of our presence.

Within the limits of the crow species, as we know them
in England, are included some birds very dissimilar in out-
ward garb, though there is a perceptible family likeness
amongst them in character and outline. Their physical
blackness is but the reflex of the character they bear amongst
the less thoughtful, marking them as outlaws by flood and
forest, common enemies, excommunicated beyond hope of
redemption, whom it is virtuous to slay and witty to revile !

I am not going to white-wash them, but suggest the latest
views of other country-side observers, and my own, on the
depth of their negrititude. It is useless to pretend human
observation can detect a track of shame or remorse in crow
kind for even the most palpable and flagrant offences brought
home to them. Nest-pillaging village boys they detest, and
keepers, when they have a gun with them, they respect;

56 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

but for the rest of humanity they have an undisguised
contempt.

The jackdaw of Rheims was a false bird to the extent of
his contrition for the theft committed. Had he been a daw
true to his breeding and colour, as far at least as mundane
probabilities go, he would have defied and derided the Lord
Cardinal's "holy anger," and cared not a sous for the plenary
absolution. Crows of all kinds are strong in their self-
conceit, though this is best seen abroad amongst the white
collared birds of the Transvaal or the slim-built Corvus
splendens of the tropics. Here, at home, the crows (with
the exception, perhaps, of the rook) shun civilization, keep-
ing much to themselves ; nor is it to be wondered at, for
constant trapping and shooting is making every one of our
six or seven species scarcer each season.

How can the raven thrive, for instance, when shepherds
proclaim he tears the eyes from lambing sheep, and keepers
swear he spits in pure wantonness every kind of young
animal upon that remorseless black pionard, his beak ! No
need to describe his geographical distribution. He is a
citizen of the world. " His sable plumage reflects the
burning sun of the equator, and his shadow falls upon the
region of perpetual snow ; he alights on the jutting peaks
of lofty mountains, and haunts the centre of vast untrodden
plains ; his hoarse cry startles the depth of the dense primeval
forest, and echoes amongst the rocks of lonely islands of the
ocean : no ultima thule is terra incognita to him ; arctic and
antarctic are both alike the home of the corbie crow."
Johnson, the African traveller, found him, pied in colour by
the way, when he was fighting and sketching on lonely
Killamanjaro in middle Africa, and a raven was the last
fresh meat Lieutenant Greely and his starving Americans
tasted when they wintered under the bitter crags of Cape
Sabine within the arctic ice.

As far as England is concerned these birds have been
driven into the fastnesses of the north, the Welsh hills and

CROWS. 57

some such wild localities as the Yorkshire scars or Cumber-
land wolds. There is little to be said for their protection
or encouragement ; any little good they may do as eaters of
carrion or destroyers of useless lower life, is lost in the
immensity of their tenantless feeding grounds, while, on the
other hand, they undoubtedly tyrannize over game and weakly
sheep. " They will pursue even the buzzard, the goshawk, or
the eagle, to endeavour to obtain from him his own capture,"
writes the Rev. F. 0. Morris, and consequently it may be
understood they would not hesitate to attack a mountain
hare far from cover in the snow, or rend a young sheep
astray from its companions. The only facts commending
this sable bird of Thor to our care is his place in history
and legend, and the tender heart of the naturalist, which is
Buddist in its encircling indulgence. Choughs and jackdaws
are equally neutral in character, the former — crows with
scarlet legs and bills — keep to a few rocky headlands round
the Cornish or Yorkshire coasts. It is long since they were
seen in any numbers east of the Solent, though Shakespeare
knew them well enough, and recently one observer writes
from Dover :

"The chough has not been seen about these cliffs for
many years. About twenty-five years ago I saw one from
the parapet at ArchclifFe Fort, on which I was leaning,
looking seawards at a lot of gulls. It was flying amongst
the latter, and came within ten yards of me, so that I could
see its orange bill and legs. A local naturalist has just told
me that he saw a chough near the South Foreland some
twenty years since. I. think the jackdaws, which swarm in
these cliffs, occupying every available hole, would drive the
chough away."

Jackdaws, on the other hand, are well known wherever
there are escarpments or ruins. No one can be familiar with
the south coast without recalling its jackdaws. In spring
I have seen them, quarrelling and building amongst the
yellow wall flowers and Valerian on the ledges of the white

58 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

cliffs ; sweeping out in clamorous schools at every real or
fancied danger — the measured tread of a coastguard above
or the shadow of a gliding kestrel crossing their nursery
floors ; and in summer they curvet with their young over
the breezy downs, or descend upon the cliff crofters' potato
plots, but no harm is committed there or elsewhere by them.
With infinite disgust have I met town gunners turning
out of an afternoon to harry this cheerful and harmless little
bird amongst his breeding places in the ruins, and in particular
one such party comes especially prominently to my memory.
I was walking down " Tweed side " and passed under the
ruins of Drochil Castle, once owned, it is said, when Scotland
was an independent monarchy, by a noble baron who turned
his restless genius to the invention of the guillotine ; and sub-
sequently, under direction of his sovereign, illustrated the
working of the affair on his own person with the assistance
of a few regal retainers ! This stronghold was overgrown
with ivy, and abounded in jackdaws who cawed and chivied
one another through casement or port holes, adding life
and interest to the scene. I sat down and thought how well
their presence befitted quiet. " Surely no voice in Nature
was ever more suggestive of long undisturbed repose, more
significant of the statelier forms of peace, or more in harmony
with old baronial possessions than the pleasant clamour of
the jackdaws up amongst the chimneys and turrets. Not
only do they enhance the tranquillity of the ancient castle,
but they add a solemnity to the minster; the poets are quite
wrong when they say the * steeple-loving jackdaws' note is
dismal.' Down the strath, when I had left the birds, with
my heart full of friendliness to them, I met three or four
townsmen armed with cheap breechloaders, about whose
errand I speculated for a time. It was only when retracing
my steps the same evening up the glen the wretched
mystery was explained. Those gentlemen of clothyard and
scales had had a field day amongst the birds, the castle was
silent and deserted, and along both sides of the approach

CROWS. 59

were some sixty or seventy greydaws, dead, and impaled in
reckless mockery on the points of a hurdle fence at distances
of ten yards apart, a most melancholy avenue under the rays
of a rising moon ! It is hard to draw a hard and fast
distinction between what is cruelty to animals and what is
not ; but there ought to be no difficulty in morally denning
wanton slaughter or distinguishing it from legitimate sport.

In coming to the rook we come to a very fertile source
of controversy which would fill a portly volume if argued
oat to the bitter end.

" Rooks do endless damage to seed corn," say the farmers,
" and moreover peck holes in root crops, thereby letting in
the frost, thus ruining acres of keep at a time when it is
most valuable."

" Besides this," suggests velveteens, who only knows
some half a dozen birds, classing all the rest as " vermin,"
" they carry off plenty of young game in the season, and play
havoc amongst the c-o-ops if left unguarded for any time."

Of these accusations, the first is undoubtedly the most
serious. Though the bareness at the base of their bills is
not due, as has been ingeniously suggested, to constant
friction with the soil, yet they are unquestionably great and
successful diggers. If wheat in a dry March is put in
lightly or broadcasted, the rooks will find it out and un-
doubtedly take their toll. Yet there is a cheap and easy
remedy at hand which solves their delinquencies at once,
and makes us safe, moreover, from small birds.

There will be no further need of bird keepers if farmers
would adopt the following process : Take one pint of gas tar
to two gallons of warm water, for eight bushels of corn, and
well mix in the same way wheat is dressed for smut.
When sown neither rooks or game of any kind will disturb
it, nor will the dressing injure the growth of the seed.

They by no means depend on one class of food for
support. A close observer illustrates this. He says :

" During the last few years I have brought up young

60 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

rooks by hand and turned them loose in the garden, where
they have been continually under my observation, and I
have never yet seen one of these birds eat a slug or a snail.

" Earthworms they will drag up and eat by morsels ; ear-
wigs, beetles, chrysalises and flies they will swallow whole in
any numbers. When given to them they will eat cold
potatoes, cbeese, biscuits and eggs, raw or cooked, and game.

" One spends a great part of his time waylaying sparrows.
When caught he holds the sparrow down with his claws,
while he plucks it, regardless of its shrieks ; he then pulls
off the head, and, after eating the body, buries the head and
intestines. One of my rooks once caught a large frog, which
he tried to swallow whole, but one leg protruded from his
beak and was immediately snapped off by his fellow bird.
While gardening we have frequently offered numerous slugs
and snails to the rooks ; but, seeing that they never touched
them we, of course, now destroy these garden pests as soon
as discovered.

"My rooks are quaint and amusing pets, easily tamed
and very intelligent."

About their sagacity there cannot be the slightest doubt.
They are rarely caught in traps, though later on I give some
ingenious devices for that purpose; sticks driven into the
ground and connected by simple zigzags of string will keep
them away from any place. They have a horror of any sort
of beguilement, nearly as great as their repugnance to a
gun. The farmer who can get near enough to the rooks
unearthing his corn to shoot one of their number, will nob
be troubled by the survivors for some time to come. The
difficulty is to get within range. I failed so often in the
attempt that at last I fell back upon a Snider rifle ; with
this I have several times got to within one hundred and
fifty yards of a feeding flock, and a shot " into the brown "
or rather black, has caused a ridiculous panic without, how-
ever, any great harm being done to the birds.

Sometimes their attention is transferred from corn to

CROWS. 61

meadow land, which latter they " scarify " after a day or
two's work as though a patent harrow had been once or
twice over it. Bad as this looks, it hides a good purpose.
The rook does not feed on grass, nor has he time for
mischief pure and simple. He has been indulging in wire-
worm and cockchafer grub — dainties of which he is very
fond — and the amount of these wretched, ruinous grubs a
flock will make away with in a morning's campaign is
simply astonishing. Let the farmer run his light roller
over the well-probed leas and bless the rooks, they are not
the least useful of his feathered allies. Perhaps the game-
keeper can hardly be invited to say so much. Here, for
instance, is a sad story from a writer in The Field.

" My keeper one morning observed about half a dozen
rooks engaged amongst the coops of young pheasants, and,
suspecting their object, drove them off. The next morning,
having fed and watered the young birds, he went to his
cottage, and, looking out about six o'clock, saw a strong
detachment of rooks from a neighbouring colony in great
excitement amongst the pens. He ran down, a distance of
two hundred yards, as fast as possible, but before he arrived
they succeeded in killing, and for the most part carrying off,
from forty to fifty birds, two or three weeks old. As he
came amongst them they flew up in all directions, their
beaks full of the spoil. The dead birds not carried away
had all of their heads pulled off, and most of their legs and
wings torn from the body. I have long known that rooks
destroy partridges' nests and eat the eggs when short of
other food, but have never known a raid of this description.
I attribute it to the excessive drought, which has so starved
the birds by depriving them of their natural insect food that
that they are driven to depredation. It will be necessary to
be on guard for some time ; bad habits once acquired (as
with man-eating tigers) may last even more than one season.
Probably the half dozen rooks first seen amongst the coops
tasted two or three, and finding them eatable, brought their

62 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

friends in numbers the next morning. In former years,
when drought has prevailed, instances have been recorded
of rooks robbing nests of the callow brood ; and in the
winter, too, when the ground has been too hard for them to
get food, they have been known to hawk after and kill
small birds."

But rooks afford some legitimate sport in May time, and
such transgressions as these are very rare indeed, the result
unquestionably of being very greatly pressed by hunger^.
Probably not one keeper in fifty has lost birds by rooks.
Crows (and crows, I may point out to the unlearned in
country side lore,, are quite distinct from rooks) do do some
damage to our pheasants and partridges. In Norway and
Sweden they and the magpies have obliterated ryper and
grouse from the fell sides. Here at home they cater for
their young with an atrocious want of discrimination
generally bringing prompt vengeance upon them. Only
let us be certain when the luckless corbie is arraigned and
executed that we have got hold of the real criminal.

A suggestive story in point should make many a game-
keeper of conscience look aside as he passes his museum on
barn door or ash tree.

" Some time ago there were several letters in The Field
regarding hedgehogs eating eggs. Within a single season
there have been two distinct cases come under observa-
tion, that have conclusively settled the question for ever.
The first is this : I had a tame duck laying under some tops
of trees that had been recently felled in the wood where
I reside. There were five eggs in the nest. On the follow-
ing morning there were only two and a piece of shell. On
the following night I put down a common rabbit trap at the
nest, let into the ground, and covered over. About ten p.m.
I heard something crying out (similar to the noise made by
a hare when in distress). Upon my going I found a very
large hedgehog in the trap. I took it out, killed it, and set
the trap again. About eleven p.m. there was another large

CROWS. 63

hedgehog in the wood pile, which I killed, and set the trap
again. I went again the next morning at five a.m., and
found another large hedgehog in the same gin, making
three hedgehogs in one night caught at the duck's nest.
Since then the duck has been sitting in the same nest un-
disturbed by anything. The second case occurred recently.
One of my men came to me with a face as long as a fiddle.
' Master,' says he, ' the crows have been and spoilt a
pheasant's nest that you knew of down the wood, by the
withy bed.' I asked him if he was sure it was crows.
' Come and see for yourself,' was the answer. I went, and
sure enough there were nine eggs destroyed out of fifteen.
They appeared to have been bitten half through. It then
came to my mind about the hedgehogs eating the duck's
eggs, and I was determined to find out and prove what it
was destroying these eggs. I took the remaining six eggs
home, and inserted a very small quantity of strychnine into
each egg, and sealed them up again, and took them back to
the nest where the others were destroyed. The next morning
the man and I went to see if anything was there, when we
found an immense hedgehog flat on his belly, and very much
swelled up, not a yard from the nest, and quite dead, and as
if in the act of crawling away from the nest. Only two of
the eggs were partially eaten. Is not this conclusive evidence
that the hedgehog is a great enemy to the pheasant and
partridge ? " And, I may add, evidence that crows and other
birds often suffer for guilt not their own.

I might enlarge to any extent on jays and magpies, those
picturesque brigands of the coppices. As imported by its
specific name, Morris observes, the acorn is the most choice
morceau of the jay, and for them he even searches under the
snow ; but he also feeds on more delicate fruits such as peas
and cherries, as well as on beechmast, nuts, and berries, corn,
worms, cockchaffers, and other insects, larvae, frogs and other
reptiles, even mice, and is deterred by no qualms or scruples
in making away with young birds. These birds, in the

64 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

autumn, are said to hide away food for future use, under
leaves in some secure place, and in holes of trees. They
are great egg-suckers also, and the nest of the missel thrush,
song thrush, and blackbird suffer greatly, both when they
have eggs and young ones. In the latter case many a furious
fight I have witnessed, and the gallant conduct and boldness
these birds exhibited in defence of their helpless brood was
truly astonishing, since they pursue the jay with unrelenting
fury, in and out of thickets where it would try to gain
shelter. Occasionally I have observed it succeed if there
were only one pair of birds defending ; but it often happens
that other pairs come to their assistance whose nests or
young ones are in the immediate neighbourhood, and these,
boldly and unitedly concerting together against a common
enemy, often drive it ignominiously away. The magpie is a
little better in service to humanity.

Of these two, as of all the rest of the genus, I can only
say that in place and in reason they are a distinct gain to
our allies by covert and meadow. When they trespass they
trespass badly, worse indeed than the majority of birds ; but
of this I am certain, that all the crow kind within our four
seas do less harm to agriculture in the aggregate than a single
shower when the hay is down, or corn is ripe ; and much less
harm to game than a thunderstorm (or an inch of snow on
the high grounds), when grouse or partridge chicks have
grown too big and bulky to shelter under their mother's
wings.

CROWS AND THEIR CAPTURE.

A reasonable and philosophical view must indeed soon be
taken of the work done for mankind by the crow, the rook,
and their kindred. Were it otherwise, we should hesitate
before divulging any of those many and cunning secrets de-
vised for their destruction which a store of human enemies have
scattered through the pages of "Manuals "and "Treatises."

CROWS. 65

For, heretical as it' may sound, we have a strong feeling
of friendship for the dusky brotherhood. Perhaps it will
be suggested we have never suffered materially at their
hand, or we might be less indulgent. We do not allow
this, for we have felt, and bitterly resented at the time,
nearly every form of indignity to which the corvine species
can put either the sportsman, the naturalist, or the farmer.
And yefc there appears, in our mind, no legitimate need to
consign the whole race to that hideous barbarity "the
gamekeeper's tree," for when their numbers are moderate
the good they do, and the life infused into often desolate
regions, far outweigh their transgressions. At least, this is
the writer's experience, an experience, moreover, practical
and not altogether inextensive.

The raven, for instance, the first of his kind in size,
strength, and cunning, if a hundred fables about him are to
be believed, has been my companion in many a lonely ramble
up Highland passes and over the seldom trodden wastes of
the wild western coast. Perhaps he does occasionally take
a juicy young grouse, when he fancies a change of diet
would be useful, and young hares or mountain rabbits
playing about far from cover undeniably suggest dinner to
him. But the harm done in this way is small, even when
all carefully recorded, and we could write off with very
little grudging in our game books each season a few brace of
birds or fur to his account. Then, there is the crow — a bird
of evil omen all over the world, which, nevertheless, contrives
to live a happy and useful life from the verge of perpetual
ice along the Nova Zembla shores to the rim of the antarctic
circle. The oldest Yedas tell us how he fell from Paradise,
and the most ancient Cinghalese writings record his original
sin : " In wrath for their tale-bearing — for had they not
carried abroad the secrets of the councils of the gods ? —
Indra hurled them down through the hundred storeys of his
heaven;" and the Pratyasatka adds that "nothing can
improve a crow." In India he is the common enemy; kites

F

66 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

knock him off the roof ridge or wrench away the meat he
has stolen from the kitchen ; pariah dogs come on him round
the corner and shortly dine on " black game." Has the
" mem- sahib " lost a silk handkerchief ? Then it must be

that rascally crow on the cotton tree who has taken it,

and forthwith the " butler wallah " attaches an appetizing bit
of meat to a couple of feet of string and throws it into the
compound. At the other end of the string is a small stone,
and when the bird of sable plumage swoops down and flies
off exultantly with the morsel in his beak, the string very
speedily swings itself round his body, and the result is an
ignominious tumble to earth, and an inglorious scuffle on the
sand till native fingers loosen the tangle. But then begins
the worst part of this proceeding for Corvus splendens. He
is taken into the shed, which goes by the name of kitchen
in India, and plucked remorselessly, being divorced from
every vestige of plumage, as he struggles and kicks between
the butler's knees ; and then, in this plight — truly a sorry
one — he is released, to die of melancholia, we should fancy,
on the nearest roof top, for a live plucked crow, " naked and
ashamed," is about the most woe-begone spectacle in orni-
thology that can be imagined.

Native children are also proficient in capturing the much-
abused crow. A lively and strong bird is obtained, little
used to such indignities, and is pegged down to the ground
in the open on his back with forked twigs, which are driven
in over his wing^bones. He very speedily lets the whole
neighbourhood hear of his misfortune, and the wild birds,
flocking round him, crowd so close that at length one is
seized in the sufferer's claws, and convulsively held until
the fowler rushes from his ambush, and secures it for
himself.

Then, again, comes the bitter part, for the birds Apollo
loved are taken, and after suffering numberless indignities
at the hands of their small tormentors, each receive a daub
of cobbler's wax on its beak, between the eyes, and in this

CEO WS. 67

three or four red or green feathers are stuck — a style of
borrowed plumage comical in the extreme — the unfortunate
birds being a laughing-stock, not only to their biped enemies
on the ground, but to their friends amongst the boughs, if
one may judge by the clamour with which they are received
aloft.

Shakespeare speaks of the crow as " ribald ; " Prior,
" foreboding ; " Dyer, " lurking ; " Churchill and Gay,
" strutting ; " Dryden, " dastard ; " and so on. In every land
they have a bad name. " Yet they do not wear their colour
with humility, or even common decency. On the contrary,
they swagger in it, pretending they chose that exact shade
for themselves. ... In the verandahs, they parade the
reverend sable which they disgrace ; sleek as Chadband, wily
as Pecksniff. Their step is grave, and they seem ever on
the point of quoting scripture, while their eyes are wandering
towards carnal matters. Like Stiggins, they keep a sharp
look out for tea-time, and hanker after flesh-pots." Hiawatha
knew of a land of dead crow men, and in Thibet the
wandering pilgrims say there is an evil city of crows. Those
who have dipped into northern fiction must remember the
Swedish "Place of crows and devils," and the Norwegian
" Hill of Bad Spirits," where the souls of wicked men fly
about in the likeness of the same unfortunate bird. In the
latter country the crow is an undoubted nuisance, and a
terrible poacher ; so he is shot and trapped without mercy,
but (as usual) seems to thrive on persecution. The " crow
pen " is a common sight in the Scandinavian backwood
villages. It is nothing but a huge birdcage, but formed of
slender saplings seven or eight feet in length, and about four
feet high above the ground. The spaces on top are left
pretty wide open for a time, until the crows have become
used to going in and out to get the bait — and there are few
places where their kind will not go for that purpose — and
then when familiarity has bred hardihood the top pieces are
put close together, leaving only a hole through which the

68 SIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

crows can easily drop with closed wings, but too small for
them to flap through when they rise from the inside. Great
is the rejoicing of the farmer and his small children, and
prodigious the clamour of the birds on the outside of the
trap, when this cage is thronged with an entrapped multi-
tude.

The rook is such a pleasant neighbour in a country house
that he is generally and properly protected, but occasionally
he is " wanted " either as a misdoer, guilty of agricultural
offences, or as a victim to the modern falconer, who finds in
him a convenient quarry to enter haggards upon. Mr. J. E.
Harting tells us that rooks are taken for this purpose in two
ways. The first is to get a boy to climb a tree in the rookery,
taking with him a long line with a noose at one end. The
noose must be carefully adjusted over the nest in such a
manner that when a rook has settled down to roost in the
evening, the falconer on pulling the other end of the string
at the foot of the tree may catch it round the legs. It is in
this way that herons are generally caught for the same
purpose. A certain amount of care must be exercised to
ensure the line running freely, and also to ensure getting
the bird down nicely. The other method is to set traps
behind a plough, and to get the ploughman to shift them
from time to time as he proceeds. The trap need not be
large or heavy, and a short line or peg will prevent a rook
flying away with it. If the spring be too strong or the
teeth too sharp, the jaws may be bound with list so as to
prevent a risk of breaking the bird's leg, In putting on
the list, of course care must be taken that it does not
impede the closing of the trap ; otherwise the rook on
springing it would extricate his foot and get away.

But, says another friend of the birds — " In his industry
the farmer has but few such friends, or the insect world
such foes. Up in the morning, before the dew is off the
grass, the rooks are hard at work disposing of that ' first
worm ' which proverbially falls to the lot of the early bird.

CROWS. C9

Like detectives, they are perpetually on the watch to arrest
some one, and woe to the insect, grub, or beetle whose evil
ways are discovered. There is no appeal from a rook. It
holds its sessions where it chooses, and they may look for
summary procedure who come under this admirable bird."

This only makes all the more ungenerous the device of
the Wiltshire husbandmen. Though we have no experience
of the success of the method, it is said rooks are taken by
them as follows : A number of cones are made of dark-
coloured paper. At the bottom of each of these is placed
some corn, and round the upper edge is smeared a little
birdlime. The cones are then stuck about a field, point
downwards, where the rooks resort, and, on their coming
there, they observe the corn, and thrusting their heads in
to obtain it, the cones become stuck to them, rendering
them blind, and they may be captured in that state by hand.
In folk-lore they hold an honourable place. They are said
to connect themselves with the fortunes of families, deserting
their elms when disaster overtakes the house ; and Cosmo di
Medici, visiting England two centuries ago, was especially
struck by the pride the peerage took in its rookeries. " For
these birds," said he, "are of good omen."

The jay is a crow with the men of science, in spite of its
gay dress, and lets out the secret in voice and inquisitive
ness. Though "the brigands and tyrants of the coppice,"
they are one of the few birds of brilliant plumage native
to England, and do but little harm to the game of our wood-
lands, it is on the small birds that they chiefly wage war.
Their clanship and the interest each takes in its neighbours'
concerns is very remarkable. A writer in a long-extinct
journal gives a very amusing account of the way in which
this trait in the jay's character is turned to use for his
destruction. Describing an orchard in German Alsace, he
says : " It was pretty extensive, covering, I should say, a
couple of acres, and its trees, which were, all but one, in
excellent trim, were chiefly apple and cherry trees. The

70 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

lonely one which made thus an exception to the rule was
truly in as desperate a plight as any fruit tree could ever be.
Leafless, barkless, broken-down, and bare, it was but the very
ghost or skeleton, at best, of an old apple tree. At its foot
was a small hut, about the size of a Newfoundland's kennel.
This hut was made roughly, of a few willow branches, with
both ends stuck in the ground, tunnel-shape, and covered
over with a few handfuls of evergreens. Karl, my active
German guide, who had brought a large clasp-knife-, thereupon
proceeded to cut down a few more branches and leaves from
the nearest hedge, and he interlaced these with the frame-
work of the hut, so as to make its interior tolerably secure
from the prying glances of the jays on the morrow.

" The next morning, early, ' we were all there,' as the
Americans say. A cool morning it was, with a fresh breeze
blowing, and the dew yet on every blade of grass, when we
left the keeper's house. Karl was carrying a large pan of
bird-lime, a bundle of small branches about a foot long, a
long stick notched at one end, a large and long empty cage,
and a smaller one containing a live jay. On his back was
strapped a small bundle of hay. When we reached the hut,
he, first of all, thrust the hay inside, and placed the cage out
of harm's way in the hut. Then he cut the string which held
all his bits of stick together, and taking them, one by one, he
thrust each of them separately in the notch of his long stick,
dipped them, turn by turn, in the fresh lime, and fixed them
here and there on the uppermost branches of the apple tree,
wherever any forks in the branches allowed a resting-place
for them.

"When he had arranged the lot, the sun was getting
pretty well up in the sky, and we crawled into the hut. Oar
position there was not remarkably comfortable, but the pro-
spect in store was rather cheering, and that made a com-
pensation for the somewhat cramped posture we were for the
time being forced to adopt.

" Meanwhile, by peering through the leaves I saw a band

CHOWS. 71

of jays coming at a very slow rate across the tops of the
forest trees towards us.

" ' Now the fan will begin,' whispered the garde in my ear,
and his eyes twinkled merrily. Saying this, he placed and
held the little cage in front of his knees, and began poking
his fingers through the bars.

" Screech ! screech ! screech ! " at once shouted the captive
jay, at the same time attacking vigorously the keeper's hand,
and all the while keeping up incessantly its extraordinary
clatter.

" ' Screech ! screech ! screech ! " replied immediately the
astonished wild jays, pausing at first in their surprise, and
settling on the branches nearest to them to listen.

" ' Screech ! screech ! ' pursued the tame bird, and the
others, wondering no doubt what on earth was being done
to their confrere, set sail without further parley, and drew
nearer to try to find, doubtless, where the aggravating assault
was being committed. In a few moments, the trees around
us were covered with them, turning their big heads this way
and that way, making their eyes sparkle and shine like beads,
and showing themselves off, oh, so beautifully ! with their
wonderfully bright plumage, amidst the ripe cherries and the
green leaves which surrounded them. It was almost a pity
to disturb and catch them, but the keeper did not see it ' in
the same light.' ' Screech ! screech ! screech ! ' exploded
Karl's bird under his manipulations ; and, lo ! whilst I Was
watching one of the strangers in his evolutions something
fell behind me with a great deal of spluttering, on the hut,
and rolled from thence to the ground ; then another ; and
another again ; and on turning round quietly I saw three
jays on the grass, struggling to set themselves free ; but the
glued stick held them well, and the birds' fate was settled.
In a moment more four or five more jays were also coming
down, and Karl, withdrawing his fingers, allowed his ' call '
bird to relapse into quietness. Thereupon those of the wild
birds which were still free flew back towards the forest,

72 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

settling on the border trees, and as soon as the coast was
pretty clear of them, Karl rushed out, picked up the caught
birds, and thrust them quickly into the large empty cage.
There was a ' row ' then, every one of the new-comers
shouting most lustily, not only all the time they were held,
but when caged ; every time we as much as winked at them,
they broke forth in the most unmusical and noisy of concerts.

" Of course, those that had gone away no sooner heard
this shocking shindy, than they all flocked back to the
rescue, and in less than a quarter of an hour's time over
two dozen of them were also prisoners."

English bird dealers find that to take this bird no plan
is more effectual than sham eggs as bait to a gin. They
should be turned out of wood, birch answers very well,
coloured and varnished to represent the natural ones.
Thrushes are perhaps as good as any for the purpose, as
they show well and are easy of imitation. Four or five
of these eggs should be put in a shatn or real nest, placed on
a stage against a tree a few feet from the ground, leaving
just room for the gin, which must have a little branch or two
on either side of it, so as to bar access to the nest, save over
the trap. The peculiar advantage of this plan is that, strange
to say, it can be employed with success all through the winter
when natural eggs are not attainable ; and the false eggs can
be carried in the pocket without fear of breaking them.

Then there is the magpie, of which old legends say, we
read, that it still lies under Noah's curse, because when the
other birds came of their own accord into the Ark, it alone
gave trouble, and had to be caught. " What a delightful
idea — the whole of Noah's Ark waiting to start, till Japhet
caught the magpie ! " It is everywhere a "fowl of mystery."
On the far side of the North Sea it swarms, and perhaps does
something towards keeping down the stock of game, for the
" pyet " is desperately fond of eggs, and they often lead him
into the gamekeeper's trap. On the shore of a shallow pond
or lagoon which they frequent a small " pier " of stones and

CROWS. 73

moss is built about three feet long from a shelving bank.
At the end a steel rabbit trap is set. A hen's egg as bait
having been emptied through a large hole on one side, a
small piece of stick or a match with twine attached is placed
cross-ways inside. To the other end of the twine a stone is
fastened, and the egg is by this means anchored off the end
of the artificial jetty. When a magpie sees the egg floating
on the water, down it comes, and after a little while walks
up the " landing-stage," to get within reach of the tempting
morsel, and is caught in the act.

We have said nothing about the admirable chough,
who, like the crow and raven, is faithful to one mate until
death divides them. King Arthur's spirit went into a
" russet-pated chough," the Cornish bards sing after
Camlan ; and the only mention we have in fable of the
red-stockinged " market- j e w-crow " is when he very pro-
perly refuses to " swop " his scarlet legs for the peacock's
gaudy tail. He is modest and faithful in his personality,
and attractive to the naturalist and lover of coast scenery.
The jackdaws and hooded crows are as interesting as any
of their kind, and fill up niches in the rich and varied
bird life of the British Isles.

74 BIBD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

CHAPTER IV.

MARSH BIRDS.

FOR POWDER AND PASTIES.

PLENTY of sportsmen who are keen enough on heather or
stubble "think small" of the various game of the marsh
lands. They will when beating grouse cover pull trigger
on a snipe, if he gets up out of a runnel, or springs from
a miniature swamp where bog myrtles make diminutive
forests on the wet peat tussocks. I have even seen these
shooters " blaze " into a flock of plovers coming temptingly
overhead, but it was always with an implied protest and
a sense of the un worthiness of the game. Myself I do not
much sympathize with them. Each sportsman will have his
particular fancy in such matters, just as one man will go
into ecstasies over a view which to another may be tame or
barren. But, though not the first of sports, marsh shooting
is very excellent in its way, and here at home, even in these
days of hard draining and the reclaiming of land Nature
never intended for cultivation, it is practised with enthusiasm
and success by some of the keenest gunners on foot.

They may at least claim for their sport that it is universal
and world wide. Other countries have their distinctive
shootings to some extent. Pheasant shooters will not find
much to do outside English shires, and he who loves the
grouse must go to Scotland, while big game hunters look to
Norway for reindeer, Canada for her moose and bison, India
for the tiger, and Africa for the lion and elephant; but he

MAESH BIRDS. 75

who loves the merry brown snipe or his kindred, the wild
wastes of sighing rushes, and the pools that flash back the
daylight in their green setting, will find his delight in every
land under the sun. When the ice cracks upon arctic tarns
and the first fresh water of the year catches the red glint of
the early summer sun, the snipe and the plovers are amongst
those pools — very possibly there is no one to molest them,
but that is not their fault ; and as Lap or Siberian move up
to the fells and spring time bursts over their country, all
these little birds are there already. There is no better
shooting anywhere, again, than in the tropics. The water-
courses of the Flowery Land, the rich rice swamps of Ceylon,
and the fertile plains of India have their Painted Snipe.
A bewildering multitude of other game of much the same
feather in Australia abound on the inland marshes.

Nearer home I am much tempted to dilate on many pro-
ductive snipe-grounds, but the subject is too extensive. As
a rule it may be pointed out rough shooting is best all
over the Mediterranean and the lands bordering upon it.
just at " flight time," and falls off rapidly after a week or
two. But extraordinary sport is sometimes had amongst
fen birds from Constantinople and the Black Sea to Cadiz,
" while the fun lasts." Here, for instance, is a sketch of the
sort of thing they sometimes get in the neighbourhood of
Smyrna nearly opposite Cyprus ; the writer being a resident
and a good sportsman, his letter bearing a date in April.
"A long and unusually cold spell," he writes, "brought our
annual visitors in countless flights, to which the wholesale
destruction apparently made no difference, as the cold in-
tensified other flights, filled up the thinned ranks, until whole
districts were alive with cock, every little bush holding
a starved and emaciated tenant.

" In Smyrna the streets were inundated with thousands of
cocks for sale at 3d. or 2d. each, or almost any price you would
name. During one week it is computed twenty thousand
were brought into this town ; one French steam-packet alone

76 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

shipped eight thousand cocks for Marseilles ; in fact, the
bird was a drug, and offering one of the most prized of birds
to your friend was almost an insult. Many professional
native sportsmen gave up shooting as not paying for powder,
shot, and expenses, and on the first return of mild weather,
when the flights returned to their breeding grounds, many
might join in Dean Swift's grace, ' We've had enough.'

" Of individual bags, it is said one gun scored one hundred
and sixty-eight cocks in one day ; possible from the quantity
and state of storm-driven birds, yet difficult to credit. Two
guns, however, in fifteen and a half hours' shooting, extend-
ing over two days, bagged just one hundred couples. Other
guns during a day, or even part of a day, bagged fifty and
sixty cocks each — a feat accomplished by many ordinary
shots. This took place in the neighbourhood of Smyrna,
where the flights were more concentrated. If we consider
that they extended over nearly the whole of Anatolia, and
that thousands perished in the sea whilst crossing from the
mainland to the islands of Ohio and Metelin when storm-
driven and feeble, the destruction must have been enormous,
and may in no way revive hopes in your readers of future
plenty. Yet over a wide expanse of country many thousands
of birds never heard a gun ; and if to these be added the
apparent quantity of birds that survived the battering
welcome of the elements and of sportsmen, which is known,
it is clear that enough will return to the fens and lakes of
Prussia, Finland, and Northern Russia, to breed numbers
sufficient to partly make up for such destruction.

" A point for discussion suggests itself, however. Do birds
that visit our shores, in case even of favourable wind and
weather, ever migrate to England ? Is it not rather those bred
in Norway? and Sweden which are welcomed by sportsmen at
home ? Flights from these latter countries will again vary
the line of migration according to the direction of the wind
at starting ; so a scarcity in England may be occasioned
from such a cause, and not actual decrease of the breed."

MARSH BIRDS. 77

What joy would there fbe in Cornwall and Devonshire
were such a flight as the above to grace their holly thickets
and spruce plantations ! But I fear we must wait for that
fortunate breeze at the flitting season the writer suggests
as regulating the cocks' movements. I have wandered rather
far away, and possibly the woodcock of Smyrna, or the long-
bills that teem in Caspian swamps are of little interest to
home sportsmen. It cannot be denied that, as far as cock
are concerned, there has been a lamentable falling off in the
number of these birds to be obtained in our home shires —
a decrease more marked indeed than that of snipe, though
the improvement of land would on the face of it have been
supposed to most affect the latter bird.

It is difficult to say why this is, though there are some
causes which may be pointed to with certainty as having
contributed to this undesirable end.

To begin with, the woodcock is a very shy bird, shy cer-
tainly in disposition if not in habitat. During the hours of
moonlight and in open weather, like most of their kind, they
are active and feeding in the open. Thus they have some-
times been taken in the poachers' drag nets when sweeping
stubbles for partridges. You will find the woodcock during
the day sitting under a clump of bushes or trees quite dry.
If you examine the place where the bird gets up, you will see
by the droppings it has kept its place after going to covert
for the day, just as a hare keeps her seat until disturbed.
They suffer a near approach the first time they rise, and
should they escape being killed seldom afford another shot,
unless a second person contrives to drive them to the gun, in
which respect also they resemble hares, and it would not be
difficult to imagine that the country where civilization is most
oppressive to free spirits, and their midday repose is most
often broken, would earn a bad name amongst them.

But more prominently than this cause of scarcity may be
placed some others, the greater deadliness of modern arms of
precision, the far greater number who use them, and lastly

78 B1ED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

but not least, a consideration closely allied to the first one
mentioned, greatly increased facilities of locomotion and con-
sequent close search of spots to-day that formerly were
natural sanctuaries unbroken by human intrusion. The
general tendency of such altered circumstances would be to
give England a bad savour at the woodcock head-quarters, to
diminish migration, and would of course lead to the thinning
of the ranks of such as ventured here and the practical
extermination of those that might wish to remain and breed.

The woodcock, however, is a very persevering bird. With
anything like fair play and quiet he will always find out
favourite haunts and fill them. The Wild Birds Protection
Act should have done as much for him as for any bird.

But with the mention of marsh or fen the bird that rises
before us is the common and cheerful little snipe, which we
have seen inhabits the globe from far north to far south. I
doubt if, after allowing for the inevitable halo of romance
which always tinges antique shooting stories, it could well
be proved that our forefathers made much larger bags of
snipe fifty years ago on localities which have remained un-
changed than they could do in a favourable season of this or
any neighbouring year.

" Capricious in their movements as snipe are, and influenced
by every change in the weather, they are still fond of certain
spots ; and if they are to be met with in the country at all,
you will be sure to find them in some of these. Snipe have
wonderful 'lasting,' as an old gamekeeper used to say to
me. ' Lord bless you, sir, I don't know how they stands ;
there's as many now ' (this was just the end of the season)
' as if there was ne'er a one taken out of them the whole
year — and sure we're shooting them every day since October
came in.' It is a fact ; shoot them as you will, there will
be always some after you ; and, though it is the fashion now
to complain of the scarcity of snipe, I attribute that entirely
to the great increase of drainage, as in localities which are
favourable to them, snipe are as plentiful to-day as they were

MAESH BIRDS. 79

when I first began to shoot, now some thirteen or fourteen
seasons ago. Of course, if you go in for improving the land,
you improve the snipe out of it. Within a couple of miles
of this there was a swamp with a river running through it,
where in frost you could get your ten couple of snipe, with
the chance of a duck or a mallard in the day. Now you
would not see a snipe in it. An improving proprietor got
hold of it, sunk the river, drained and sub-drained the swamp,
and in two or three years had turnips and oats growing
where I have often sunk below my hips shooting duck and
snipe. Woodcock, I think, are getting scarcer every year,
but not snipe ; the only difference I see in the latter is that
they seem to be wilder than formerly. This may be fancy
on my part ; I accounted for it by the mildness of the winters.
This, however, I can say, that over the same ground I have
got as good bags of snipe in recent seasons as I ever got in
previous ones."

This exactly illustrates what I mean. " Of course, if you
go in for improving the land, you improve the snipe out of it,"
but otherwise " over the same ground as good a bag of snipe
is to be got now as in any previous season." I look upon the
natural supply of snipe as practically inexhaustible, a result
due to the infinite diffusion of the species and the vastness
of their breeding ground. Here we shall never breed any
adequate supply for the ever rising enthusiasm of the sports-
men of mud boots and retrievers, but from abroad we shall
have a constant and unfailing fund limited only by the
capacity of our counties to harbour and feed the strangers.
" And both those capacities are getting narrower and narrower
every day ! " observes the pessimist.

There can be no doubt there is much truth in this. When
King Alfred hid amongst the osier forests of Norfolk, and
there was a current superstition that all dwellers near the
Wash were web-footed, snipe must have found our littoral a
very Elysium. To go no further back than the time of our
grandfathers, there still live men who shot snipe amongst

80 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

flags and reeds where there is nothing now but cobble and
curb stones. Moorfields were an excellent place for long-bills,
and so was Belgrave Square and Pimlico ! There can be no
doubt in the " home counties," at least, the available range
of the snipe is within a measurable distance of total extinc-
tion, and it is so to a greater or lesser extent elsewhere.

Seeing, however, that snipe are to be had for the humour-
ing, I would hint the advisability of pampering them wherever
possible. At the risk of becoming an apostle of osiers, I would
suggest, as in the chapter on ducks, the possibility of pre-
paring with very little trouble tempting resting-places for
migrating birds. An excellent letter to the Field, from one
well and professionally qualified to express an opinion, illus-
trates the practicability of the idea.

" A LIKELY PLACE FOE A SNIPE.

" SlE,

"While reading a pithy sketch of a 'white frost,'
an idea came into my mind that has often arisen before,
especially when crossing manors in different parts of England
— how often the opportunity is lost of making a bit of covert
for a snipe or a cock. I have met with lots of men belong-
ing to my calling who knew well how to show a stock of
hand-reared and indigenous game, that never once thought
of establishing a bit or two in the place that would screen
wandering game birds. It is simple enough ; all that is to
be done is to provide the ' feed ' after having found the
4 situation,' work a bit with the head, and then sign willing.
I remember following a man on an estate in the east of
England, and on asking him while we were going round the
place, if they ever got many snipe, he said one ' now and
agin.' Now, I had seen that it only wanted a little working
to turn a stretch of about ten acres in a direct line into a
first-class snipe beat, and all by commanding the water in
the top pond by means of a sluice or two. This bottom ran

MA11SH BIRDS. 81

as a fringe to the arable, and was between that and the
coverts ; and by judiciously breaking up, trenching, ditching,
and planting willows, and on the highest places hollies, T
could, in the flight time, generally about the middle of
October (according to the season), keep my sedge and rushes
in the top pond nearly root dry, and the water sufficiently
low to afford food for the snipe, and by flushing the bottoms
afforded future feed for them. The consequence was that,
instead of a snipe or two 'now and agin,' I could all through
the season show some, and frequently have seen killed by
one gun down this beat, shooting over a small setter broken
specially to work for snipe, a bag of eight or ten couples or
more in an hour's easy walking in a white frost. The hollies
would provide a cock or two, for if quiet they will not leave
the feed far in a frost ; and many a rare specimen this place
has afforded — some of the most rare that have been obtained
in this country — for in a few years I had a splendid reach,
with about a dozen ponds of various kinds, some open, some
Avell sheltered, and rough snipe ground between ; for it is as
easy to show snipe, cock, teal, widgeon, duck, and many of
the divers on a shooting, as 'partridge, always partridge.'
Many a sour, wet corner of a field, useless to grow anything
but osiers, if broken up, trenched, and planted, would afford
a snipe or two where one was not known before only as a
rara avis. Find the feed, and my experience tells me they
will go nearly anywhere. I could relate numerous instances
of this. The great thing is to supply suitable and likely
spots, and have them prepared when the first flight comes,
and you can then stop those that would otherwise pass by
you ; and, feed once found, you may always insure birds.
How is it a particular holly bush will provide you a cock as
sure as the season comes round, but that the ' situation
suits ? ' Can any one tell me why ducks and widgeon select
different ponds, and keep to them, unless it is that situation
has the main to do with it ?

"W. J.,

" Noblcthorp, Yorkshire." " Gamekeeper."

G

82 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

Ireland will always no doubt be a head-quarters for these
dainty little birds, and they are still to be had in more or
less abundance every spring- and autumn along our eastern
coasts. There, too, are reed beds and gorse dunes that hide
in season other quarry for the sportsman naturalist — happy
hunting grounds once of the fen netsman. Daniel describes
how when a fowler discovers a marsh hillock where the ruffs
and reeves play, he places his net overnight, of the same
kind as those called " clop " or day-nets only, generally single,
and about fourteen yards long by four broad. At daybreak
he resorts to his stand at the distance of one or two hundred
yards from the nets — the later the season the shyer the birds,
and he must keep the further off. He then makes his pull,
taking such birds as are within reach. After that, he places
stuffed birds or " stales " to entice those that are continually
traversing the fen. " A fowler has been known thus to catch
forty-four birds at the iirst haul, and the whole taken in the
morning was six dozen; though, when the stales are set,
seldom more than two or three are taken at the same time."

Mr. Lubbock, in his "Fauna of Norfolk," says that in
that county nets were never used to take this bird, but
rather snares made of horsehair. Then again there is "the
foolish dotterel." In the whole range of English poetry,
only two writers mention him ; one is eccentrically unfortu-
nate in his remarks, and the other draws heavily upon the
recognized licence of his order. Wordsworth in the " Idle
Shepherd Boy "• writes : " the sand lark chants a joyous
song." Now that appellation is a local name for Charddrius
morinellus, and we need not say that the shepherd boy would
deserve any other title but that of idle who caught the
silent dotterel chanting any sort of ditty. Drayton again, in
" Polyolbion," tells us—

" The dotterel which we think a very dainty dish,
Whose taking makes more sport as man no more can wish,
For as you creepe, or coure, or lye, or stoupe, or goe,
So marking you with care, the apish bird doth soe,

MARSH BIRDS. 83

And acting everything doth never mark the net,
Till he be in the snare which men for him have set."

The poet lias here clearly accepted as fact exaggerated
stories of fen men, based no doubt though they have been
on substantial facts ; for this " shore lark," when newly
arrived from the primitive barbarisms of the far north, is
both foolish and curious. Bright lights in the darkness of
night possess an attraction for birds often taken advantage
of for their destruction. Thus the dotterel was caught in
long fine nets extended about the marshy sheep-walks
frequented by them, of mesh just sufficient to admit their
heads, and supported on light sticks. Then when the birds
were settled for the night, and land and sea were merged in
equal darkness, only divided it might be by the lines of pale
breakers running in upon the shores, the dotterel men turned
out, some walking in line beating with their sticks, and
others clanking round stones together, and the drowsy birds
ran before them. Another party stood just behind the nets
with lanterns, and attracted by the glare of these, the birds
ran towards them, and were speedily entangled.

The knot again, that bird that was to King Canute what
lampreys were to John, is found amongst the sedges, and has
been decoyed into nets by wooden figures, painted to represent
itself, placed within them, much in the same way that the
ruff was taken, the best season for their capture being August
to November. We doubt if a dozen a year find their way to
Leadenhall Market now, so much have they gone down in
fashion or in abundance.

But I must not run through the whole gamut of unrecog-
nized game which lives outside the manor and beyond the
pale of an ordinary shooter's sympathy. There is the heron,
that spectral blue bird of preternatural sagacity, and the
bittern — not yet quite extinct — whose weird cry doubles the
loneliness of the swamps and wastes. There are coots and
moorhens which are wise enough to be equally unpalatable
•and sombre feathered ; the grebes, quaint in manner and

84 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

form, the dainty godwits who dabble in the brackish pools
or flit lightly down the nullahs, not to mention the curlew
and his kind, or the plovers who wheel and scream in the-
yellow of early dawn overhead. But these birds are for the
most part unpopular, so they get but short shift.

I think, however, with the man who loves snipe and
sedges, that there is good and healthful sport to be had

"... by the drear banks of Uffins
Where the flights of marsh fowl play ; "

and in union with him, as well as from early association, the
wild birds of the river-side will always be appreciated by me,.

WINTER ON THE MUD FLATS.

To make a successful marsh shooter, capable of enjoying
the lonely wrastes, even though we indulge in this fascinating
sport with the best regard to health and comfort, demands-
good health and a certain amount of hardiness, tempered
by judicious caution. The way in Avhich the most pleasure
can be obtained, with the minimum of discomfort, is un-
questionably by shooting from a boat, especially in the
season of frost and snow, when it is no mean consideration
to have a dry shelter to retreat to always at hand. Tha
boat-shooter thus may find himself quartered over night at
some comfortable water-side inn near a favourite haunt of
the cold weather birds.

His next discovery is that "five-o'clock-in-the-morning
courage " is one of the essentials in the character of a
successful rough shooter when he indulges in this frigid
pleasure. His slumbers between the sheets of his com-
fortable crib hang entirely on the state of the tide ; per-
chance he is just indulging in that " beauty-sleep " which
doctors tell us it is such ruin to break, when there comes
the rattle of gravel on the lattice windows, thrown from the
hands of a grim old "salt" below, who appears to sleep

MARSH BIRDS. 85

In his thick blue jersey and rough cloth breeches from year's
end to year's end, since it is impossible to notice the smallest
difference in their arrangement no matter what the weather,
or how unearthly the hour at which he plays chamber-maid.
The early morning when the shooter reaches the snug
coffee-room — where the "neat-handed Phyllis" has already
lit a roaring fire with the ribs of some long-ago wrecked
vessel, and made preparations for breakfast — is remarkably
cold, the windows are dimmed with frost along their lower
margins, and everything outside is silent, chill, and grey.
As far as the eye can see down the little village street
which ends in "the hard," and a muddy creek, whence
fishing-boats gain the open water of the tideway, no soul is
stirring — the very boats are asleep, waiting for the water
and the tardy light to open in the east, Breakfast over,
the old sailor is followed down to the water's edge, where he
deposits his burden of guns, bags, and wraps under the
deck of a little craft that lies on her white-painted side just
awash of the tide. She is soon shoved afloat, and, with a
rag of a sail, goes creeping' down the creek, her skipper at
the helm, and the gunner forward, seeing all clear amongst
the stowage and lumber ere "going into action."

It is still very early, and the sportsman feels much
inward pride at being* afoot so long before the world is
awake or many folk have shaken off their slumbers. He
may be conscious of a zero temperature about toes and
fingers, but he does not care for that. There is a prospect
•of really good sport before him, for the mud flats are just
being uncovered by the still falling water, which leaves in
its rear wide stretches of ooze, rich in soft-shelled straddling
crabs, incautious flat-fish, and other marine delicacies, the
presence of which is tempting the sea-game down from the
marshes, where scores of them have been bickering and
whistling during the evening.

If the shooter is of still hardier mould he will have
slept amongst these "noises of the darkness," and in spite

86 DIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

of feather bedsmen, there are worse places on a frosty night
than the cosy cabin of a fishing smack. It is true accommo-
dation is limited, and the landsman will look round helplessly
for the conventional hat-stand, besides being likely enough
to suffer from low hatchways, and to feel generally "cabined,
cribbed, confined " for a time until he has got more used to
the limited space 'tween decks. But for those to whom
winter shooting is the best in the year, who love the tonic
sting of a north-easter as it comes blustering over the salt
flats, hurrying down a whole new fauna of bird life from
the breeding grounds of the far north, such hardships deserve
a gentler name when leavened by prospects of a few hours'
brilliant sport on the morrow.

A frost of a bitter kind came on not a dozen winters
ago, our coasts being peopled for a week or two with wild
birds, of a score of species, in flocks the like of which had
rarely been seen before. The cold, while it lasted, was
Siberian. We had chartered a handy fishing vessel, used
once or twice before on such occasions, to await us as near
as she could come to an out-of-the-way station on a sea arm
that ran in from our north-western coast; and by nightfall
on the third day of the frost we were rid of most of the
conveniences of town life, and afloat 'tween decks on our
smack. A warm at the gallery stove, a pipe, and a
pannikin of the skipper's after- supper " tea," a yarn or two
more or less spiced with the improbable, always nourished
by sea air, and then a few hours of sleep under the yellow
glow of a swinging lantern, were the preliminaries for
next day's work. An old hand under these circumstances,
coiled in his sea-jacket, a good blue jersey rolled up for a
pillow under his head, and comfortably swathed in a stout
Witney blanket, will sleep the sleep of the just, in scorn of
down beds and the frost outside. If he has served an
apprenticeship to green waters he will know in his slumber
when the tide has turned as surely as though he had sat up
to watch, probably going on deck to have a look round. At

MAESH BIRDS. 87

two a.m. we thus turned out to see what the weather was
like. There was an arctic stillness in the air and almost an
arctic dryness. The wide sweep of sky overhead, dotted by
a thousand stars, was glittering with wonderful brilliancy,
and the gleam of the land under its snowy mantle just
showed its whereabouts. The only sounds audible were
the noise of thin ice floes grinding together in the filling
creeks, the tinkle of salt w^ater falling through sluice gates,
and, tuneful to the listening wild-fowler's ear, came the
sound of the moving birds feeding and flying over salt
wastes and estuaries, the chorus of the ducks inveighing
against such " hard times " near some water hole, the whistle
of restless widgeon, varied every now and then by those
wildest of all sea bird's notes, the " troomp " of wild geese,
or the unearthly booming of a heron.

By six o'clock we had thrown off our frozen warps and
dropped down the creek as the day came. We stole along
quietly under the high banks, making hardly a sound in the
still cool air of the morning, until over our sorrel, samphire,
and sea grass sky line, fche skipper sees a couple of curlew
coming up, and putting us on the look-out by an expressive
wave of his short black pipe, tight between his lips since
"the ship " got under weigh. Both curlews pay the penalty
of their rashness, coming down headlong into the water with
a loud splash, and are brought into the boat as she goes by
with the help of a landing-net on a long staff, a fair begin-
ning, since the old rhyme says that

" A curlew, be she white or black,
Still carries tenpence on her back."

Then a shingle point is turned, the boat sliding into
more open water, where she " goes about " and steals up as
near as she dares to the edge of the flats. The skipper's
practised eyes soon make out a cluster of black dots half a
mile to leeward under the veil of mist which still hangs
over the river, and a look through the glass shows them to

88 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

be ducks beyond doubt. Not a shade of any emotion ex-
hibits itself on the honest face of the boatman as he cau-
tiously edges his vessel down to the knot of birds that are
feeding amongst the masses of floating* weeds, taking care,
however, to keep her a point or so off them until, when
the suspense is at the highest, the helmsman broadens her
off a little, and as the birds, uneasy and at last affrighted,
crowd too late together before taking wing, big gun conies
to bear straight on the "brown of them," and the old sailor,
with a nod of approval, fills the sails again, bringing the
slain within reach of the landing-net. Those only winged
require some skilful manoeuvring and a cartridge apiece,
before they are laid beside the others under the thwarts.

This is a very satisfactory continuation of business, but
there is still plenty more work on hand, so pipes are hastily
filled, Avhile the tide and a slant of wind drifts the boat up
the estuary to search for another flight of birds. By this
time the sun will be up, lighting with a vivid glow the red
sprit- sails of a convoy of barges, and dispelling the thin
drapery of vapour that has hitherto hidden the opposite shore,
which now, however, starts up into light and shadow ; wrhile
the water takes a new tinge from a sky of roseate pearl
overhead.

A wisp of ox-birds got up, almost under the button at
the end of our little bowsprit, going twittering down the
water as though they would never stop, but we reserved our
powder for better game. This was not long in coming. In
passing the mouth of one of the tortuous watercourses,
draining down into our main channel, a couple of teal flew
within easy shot, one of them being stopped promptly, and
then the other. Both were speedily brought to hand by the
retriever we had with us, who seemed greatly to enjoy his
plunge overboard and the scamper over the dead weed and
samphire flats. At the shots, a heron rose majestically, and
then passed swiftly out of our range. A company of widgeon
also went away to open water, and a cloud of golden plover

MARSH BIRDS. 89

rose on the wing, flashing in grey and white as they wheeled
hither and thither ; but what absorbed the attention of our
skipper most, and riveted his keen sight for a minute or
two, was a glimpse of, perhaps, some dozen birds of more
than ordinary size, that took wing, and after a turn, settled
again heavily in a creek about a mile away. It did not need
his brief ejaculation to tells us they were geese, and forth-
with, all lesser game was forgotten in the prospects of a shot
at these choice birds from the far north. We stood across
the shallow salt lagoon, just as the red winter sun was
coming up in the east, the fresh north wind coming with it
until we were half a mile from the solitary gander standing
sentinel over his flock on a mud bank, outwardly engaged in
sorting his back feathers, but, as we knew, keeping a sharp
watch on us. Then we got the little dingy to the yawl's
"off" side, and ourselves, boy, and dog, slipped in unob-
trusively, but held on to the ship until the skipper edged us
under cover of a mud bank. We pulled ashore, and while
the boy minded the boat, we ourselves slipped in a couple of
No. 4 cartridges, previous to making a careful stalk of some
three hundred yards. We were within forty paces of the
sentinel, on our hands and knees, when his contented chuckle
gave way to the silence of alarm. In another minute the
"whole flock were off: in their cumbrous fashion — all but
two that we had stopped, one of which gave the dog a
lengthy chase.

These mud flats are dangerous places to the careless. The
waters fill the gullies so insidiously, that one may well be
cut off and drowned, unless the greatest precaution is taken.
With boats in attendance it is another matter, of course ;
but it was at a lonely landspit, covered by a fathom or
so of water at high tide, on these shooting grounds, that
the body of a shore shooter was found only a short time
ago. The luckless fellow had clearly been separated from
the mainland, and had gone to the highest ooze he could see,
had driven the barrels of his gun into the mud, and tied

90 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

a leg to this feeble stake to save himself, it was surmised,,
from being washed away, meaning, probably, to stand the
flood out ; but the exposure and cold proved too severe. He
had been dead several hours when a lobster boat found
him.

But time and tide will not allow much space just at this
juncture for melancholy reflections, and the skipper draws-
the attention of the " gents " to a couple of widgeon that are
coming up wind at a great pace. It is doubtful whether
they will pass within shot, but fate has marked them, and
they sweep nearer and nearer. Some fifty yards away, one
is bagged in very good style, though the other gets off scathe-
less, untouched by a hasty shot. Then a heron goes over
the water to some fishy pool he wots of on the far side, with
neck folded back and long legs trailing behind, as high above-
the world as an aeronaut making meteorological observations.
Sandpipers succeed singly or in flocks, and subscribe a victim
or two to the bag ; lapwings, tame and silly, also paying'
dearly for their disregard of ordinary caution, and their
cousins, the golden plovers, more business-like, wheeling*
hither and thither on rapid wings, showing their numbers
clearly, or becoming almost invisible, as the position of their
bodies varies against the dark background of the saltings.
These, and many other birds that winter sends to gratify the
rough shooter, people the estuary and afford shots more or
less exciting, from sunrise to sunset.

While the puntsman fires his big gun, it may be but once
in twenty-four hours, the wild-fowler, who uses a breech-
loader, has better and more exciting sport — or at least more
varied. A strict chronicle of his day's work in a good river,
in a hard frost, would be a difficult task to undertake. Each
shot he fires is distinct in itself, and the pleasure of working
up to his birds, and the knowledge he gains of the curious
ways, are often keener than the final successful result of his
shot.

A taste once conceived for such sport, as that I have

MARSH BIRDS. 91

attempted to outline, is very difficult to eradicate. It holds
its votaries from youth and rashness, to age and rheumatism ;
it is never possible to have too much of it, and enthusiasts
declare every day's sport is totally unlike the last, wherein,
perhaps, lies some of its charm.

Truly it is pleasant again in June to lie far out from the
world amongst the long grass of some shingle pit —

" With the winds of summer blowing,
O'er the wide sands wild and free ; "

and for once not bent on destruction, but in pleasant
fellowship with lowly nature to watch the wild bird life —
those dainty redshanks, for instance, who glitter and flash in
the sunlight as it catches their white under plumage before
they settle in a piping cluster on the flats. They dabble
with infinite daintiness their coral beaks and legs, keeping
them spotless and immaculate in a world of sludge. There
are many other birds as pleasing and curious in their ways,
of which no one but the cockle men and the marsh gunner
know really anything.

The snipe shooter proper is a being of higher sphere ; he
rarely mixes with the Bohemians of the banks. Yet his
special pleasure is, as we have said before, very delightful
and engrossing. His is a fine art in itself — an art that
can only be learnt in its fulness by long years of patient
study. Where the snipe will lie to-morrow, and where they
will come from, whether to beat them up wind or down wind,
with dogs or without, to take them in the rain or, with the
gallant Colonel Hawker, to wait until the wind has dried
the rushes ; are all important and pregnant questions. The
themes under the heading of " snipe," are infinite. Who
shall say with any finality whether No. 6 or No. 8 shot is
best for him, whether it is true he uses his bill in rising,
whether he really listens for the creeping worm, as he
certainly seems to do when that delicate head of his is
turned on one side, — even of what his food consists, and
whether August is too early to begin shooting.

32 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

We can only be glad such an admirable little game bird
is still left to us, and if our brothers of smock frocks are
each to have "three acres and a cow/' then we respectfully
petition in the name of those Avho love the gun, that our
portion may be, forty acres — and a snipe !

WHY SNIPE ARE SCARCE.

Though the misguided English yokel, who is to have the
heifer and the triple meads as his share, may do much
damage to our native wildfowl haunts, I doubt if he is
responsible for the death of all those birds unmarked by
shot which wave in the wind over our purveyors' stalls like
the companions of Ulysses in the Cave of the Cyclops. It
is rather the ingenious and mercenary foreigner who sweeps
his fens and hill-sides to cater for the discriminating taste
of " mi lord Anglais," and sends us " poached " snipe and
woodcock by the crate full. Even our good cousins across
the Atlantic, now ice rooms or refrigerators are fitted to
nearly all steamships, evade their none too stringent game
laws, dispatching us netted wild birds from Chesapeake Bay
and the wonderful rice swamps of the interior. More than
a few of our Leadenhall wild geese and ducks have come
from the Yankee shores, and even, perhaps, that turkey
who makes a final appearance at our Christmas boards may
hail from the chippy curtilages of Canadian squatters'
wigwams or the adjacent snow-buried pine forest.

It is clear, for instance, when we read in weekly market
reports how woodcock are selling at a few shillings a brace,
while under the same date a sporting paper goes into ecstasies
over the fact that a single couple of these little winter
visitors have been flushed from a south coast spinney,
that the market must perforce be supplied from some
other source, and we should look abroad for it. Not so very
long ago Cornwall and Devon were equal to the epicures'
demand, and Exeter coaches of the day used to bring as many

MABSII BIRDS. 93-

as thirty dozen in a week to London. One person, an old
writer tells us, sent in a single season from Torrington,
in Devonshire, woodcock to the value of £1900 pounds into
market. Truly those were the days when " cock " were at
the height of fashion, and ten, sixteen, and even twenty
shillings a couple was willingly given for this admirable
table bird. At that time woodcock were taken in the south
of England by Y-shaped enclosures in coppices and wroods
they frequented, formed of small light fences of dead holly
or beach boughs a foot or so high. The woodcock, instead
of attempting to leap or fly over these, ran down the inner
side, looking for a small opening to creep through. This he
found at the apex of the angle, but a noose hung over it
which effectually secured him. by the neck — a victim to undue
fastidiousness !

But that Torrington game-dealer would never have made
an annual income of four figures out of Scolopax Rusticola,
had he known of no other snare but the above somewhat
"single-barrelled" affair. The glade-net was no doubt the
engine with which the western men took most of their
quarry, though the device, I am well pleased to think, is
hardly ever used now on this side of the Channel. It con-
sisted of nets hung across the open rides in coppices, "the
cock roads," as Blome calls them, into which migrating
woodcock, and sometimes partridges, and even hares, plunged
when driven from the neighbouring woods by beaters.
"The nets have to be of length and breadth proportionate
to the glades in which they are suspended," says Folkard, in
his "Wild Fowler," a volume that should be on every
sportsman's bookcase. The net is suspended between two
trees directly in the track of the woodcock's flight. Both
the upper and lower corners have a rope attached to them,
which is rove through sheaves fastened to the trees on either
side, at a moderate height, varying from ten to twelve feet.
The falls of the two upper ropes are joined, so that they form
a bridle, to the central part of which a rope is attached

04. BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

held by the fowler in his hand in a place of concealment,
and thus he is able to drop it down suddenly and intercept
any rash bird hurrying down the drive, the working of the
net being assisted by five pound stones tied to the corners.
The fowler having stationed himself in such a position as to
command a full view of the glade, beaters are employed to
flush the cocks out of their retreats amongst the dead fern,
and undergrowths, if they are not actually migrating at the
time, and just as the bird approaches the net it is suddenly
let down or drawn out. The instant the birds have struck
the net, the fowler lets go another cord looped to a stake
within reach of his arm, and the whole net, with the birds
entangled, then drops to the ground. In France they are
particularly skilful in this art of taking the "becasses," and
the glade nets they term " la pantiere."

All birds when migrating fly through gaps in mountain
ranges or any alleys natural or artificial assisting their
progress. It is as if, conscious of a long journey before
them, they took advantage of every chance to avoid
digressions or deviations from the straight line. Thus,
in sweeping over Heligoland, woodcock often pass actually
through the streets of the town, and the worthy burghers,
taking advantage of this, hang out from window to
window at nightfall fine twine nets of small mesh. In
these next morning, if the towns folk are in luck, hang
an assortment of cock with, perhaps, a sandpiper or two !
There are even stories current that men out after dark have
been knocked down and half killed by some blundering
mallard or errant pochard taking a short cut down the
local high-street in its autumn flight ; but the narrative wants
confirmation. " Now is the woodcock near the gin," says
Fabian, when Malvolio stoops to pick up the forged letter
of his mistress ; 110 doubt the bird has been harried and
hunted in one way or another from time immemorial.
Perhaps there is no method more eccentric of taking this
foolish bird than that French fashion, " a la folatrerie," we

MARSH BIRDS. 95

read of in " Le Moyeii Age et la Renaissance." The fowler

had a dress of the colour of dead leaves ; his face covered

with a mask of the same hue, having two holes in the place

•of eyes. As soon as he saw the woodcock he- went upon his

knees, resting his arms upon two sticks to keep himself

perfectly motionless. Whilst the woodcock did not perceive

him, he advanced gently upon his knees to get near the bird.

He had in his hand two small baquettes, the ends of which

were dressed with red cloth. When the cock was stationary,

he gently knocked the baguettes one against the other ; this

noise amused or distracted the attention of the bird; the

fowler approached nearer, and ended by casting over its neck

a noose which he had at the end of the stick. " And know

this," adds the French writer, " that woodcocks are the most

silly birds in the world." No doubt the foregoing discredits

their sagacity sorely, but quails in Afghanistan, as many

travellers point out, are caught in much the same way.

There a native sportsman dons a yellow shawl with large

black spots, and by crawling on " all fours " into the barley

fields or peach orchards, palms himself off on the credulous

and curious birds as their mortal foe, a leopard, whom they

surround and mob. At first sight none of the three species

of our lesser snipe, the common bird of rushy patches, the

gamey little jack snipe, or the scarcer great snipe, would

seem to tempt the fowler's art. Erratic in habits, and

curious in feeding grounds, there is no knowing with

any certainty where to look for them at a given period.

Watercourses and the little "canons" draining moisture

from marshes or meadows, are likely spots in frosty weather.

There the country people in Ireland catch a good many snipe

in what they call "cribs," which are a kind of basket,

roughly made of pieces of stick tied together in the shape of

a pyramid. This is supported by an arrangement of forked

sticks very similar to that used for the old-fashioned brick

trap. This crib is set by the side of a spring, and a snipe

going inside it releases the catch, and the basket falls over

96 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

liim. The country people say that if a snipe is left any time
in a crib, however fat when caught, he will get quite thin
from fright and his attempts to escape.

This latter fact is curious, but quite credible, seeing how
under opposite circumstances this species of bird plumps up
with even a few hours good feeding after his autumn
migration or a period of frost starvation.

Amongst reeds and rushes are sometimes to be found little
paths pattered smooth by moorhens and water rats running*
to and fro amongst the stems. Here, Sir Ralph Payne
Gallwey tells us, a springe for taking snipe, woodcock, and
other wildfowl, often used in Ireland, is made thus : Stick
a pliant wand of a yard and a half firmly into the ground,
bend it down till the ends of a short cross piece attached to
it, and which may be four inches long, catch in the notches
cut to receive them in two stout pegs driven firmly into the
ground, and showing a couple of inches above the surface.
Pass the fine wires that are attached to the cross stick over
a slight nick in the top of each peg, and place the running
nooses flat on the soil for snipes, edgeways for ducks and
teal. When a bird is snared, the little stick cross ways
between the uprights is freed at once, the wand flies, and
the victim is strangled. This is done so quickly and quietly
that the captive is not missed by his companions, though
dangling above them. He has found half a dozen duck,
teal, snipe, etc., thus strung up in a morning !

Such are some of the illegitimate devices tending to make
both snipe and their big relative, the woodcock, scarcer year
by year. No doubt there are more wholesale methods such
as the fen men's long nets which go over some fens, especially
near large towns, in the dusk of the evening, and frighten
away what snipe they do not secure. Possibly not quite so
much is done towards making these little wildfowl at home
in our waste lands as might be. There are, as said, scores
of places on many estates, even in the midlands, which by
a little preparation in the way of flooding a corner or two of

MARSH BIRDS. 97

" debatable land," and putting in a few willow bushes for
cover, might be made to hold twice as many couple of snipe
as they do at present. I take it as a fact not to be denied,
there are always plenty of wild birds somewhere to occupy
a desirable spot directly it is formed ; but the worst of it is,
desirable locations are becoming so sadly scarce in our over-
drained and over- "improved" shires !

It is in any case certain, however, we cannot be wrong
in suppressing nets and kindred engines of wholesale destruc-
tion, and giving the snipe a chance of resting in the limited
selection of osier beds and marshes yet open to him.

93 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

CHAPTER V.

GROUSE.

MOOE AND MOUNTAIN FOWL IN THE THREE KINGDOMS.

ALL the grouse family interest the sportsman more than the
agriculturist. Hill crofters who live amongst the grouse
bear no great grudge against them, though now and again
perhaps a brood -will come down to searoh their rocky
stubbles for shed corn, even pillaging to some small extent
the barley shocks after harvest. But the damage they do
is trifling at worst. Foresters complain that capercailzie
and blackcock eat the tender shoots of silver firs in "hard
times," but the complaint is not of any great weight.
Radical legislators, perhaps, who believe in breaking up
estates to instal a yeomanry on allotments, and would like
to see the gneiss of Ben Nevis planted with turnips, and the
sides of the Grampians devoted to carrot plots, may bear ill-
will to the whole race ; but their arguments are more trivial
than either of the others ! To gunsmen grouse stand at the
head of all our indigenous birds. They are to them what
the salmon is to fishermen, and the elephant and tiger to
Indian sportsmen. How welcome is the eve of the 12th of
August to those whose fortune it is to have toiled through
a long hot summer amongst city dust for the rest of northern
moors ! That night journey itself that takes us northward,
with all the luxury of modern travel, is, the first time we
make it, an experience the fascination of which never fades.
There is the wonderful rush through the fertile midlands,

GROUSE. 99

the chequered landscape under the moonlight, the long gleam
of lights of sleeping towns whose names we can only guess
at as we fly over the faultless steel roadway, and then the
lurid flare of the furnaces down the vale of Trent. We have
had our hot coffee, and taken our cigarettes, and perhaps
" forty winks " in the folds of our thick ulsters, when dawn
comes in the east over the deep dells and stone walls of
Cumberland ; and classic Ridblesdale, that most fascinating
valley, holds us before the sun has melted a single dewdrop
or thawed the thin white frost that silvers the shadows.
What does it matter that we have lost a night's rest, and
that we are perchance somewhat travel- stained ? The Border
is at hand, and beyond it lie heather lands and those grouse
we have thought and dreamt of during weary days at work
and the dusty crabbed hours of endless sessions. To-night
we shall be amongst the hills, and to-morrow we shall breathe
again air that is worth inspiring, and look upon scenes that
are a tonic and a sedative — a very lethe of happiness to
a hack of dusty civilization.

In fact, grouse shooting has a special charm of its own.
It can never cease to be popular in one sense of the word ;
while regarding its accessibility — to any but the wealthy — it
must be confessed that the recreation and all delights it
brings with it seem to be going back into the regions of the
impossible.

There was a time, and not so very long ago, when a tract
. of moorland reasonably stocked with its own natural grown
birds could be had, if not actually for the asking, for about
the price of a week's shooting in the southern shires to-day.
There was more adventure and more sport, I think, under
those circumstances, and decidedly more of roughing ifc in
the style of which Scrope speaks so enthusiastically. It
was a tour of many changes, from mail-coach to dog-cart,
and trap to pony, at those times, to reach outlying moors ;
the shooter and his friends provisioning themselves for
a siege, moreover, like Border, raiders when the Wardens of

100 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

the Marches were out. Plenty of exercise was then a cer-
tainty, and the honest old muzzle-loader being in each man's
hand, the grouse had a better chance of making good a
retreat; men shot in more instances with greater modera-
tion, more pleasure in the shooting, and less in seeing the
total of their bags in the next batch of local papers !

In those Arcadian days, when the shooter was not de-
posited in the midst of his grouse land by luxurious sleeping-
cars, which had brought him north from the metropolis in
nine hours or so, such a thing even as free shootings were
not unknown. Amongst " the islands " and the rocky glens
of the western coast, a man might establish himself and
roam pretty nearly at will; to-day I doubt if there is a
grouse in the highlands that could be shot without leave
by any man of conscience, for ownership has extended
in every direction, and the happy debatable lands of our fore-
fathers are known no longer.

I have no desire whatever tp decry grouse or grouse
preserving. The teaching of our demagogues that moor and
mountain belong to the peasant and should be cultivated
for and by him alone is difficult to refute, because there
is a grain of truth in it. Some seventy per cent, of the
highlands cannot and will never be cultivated by any crop
that the crofter can afford to rear. Such soil, rock it were
almost better to call it, is fit only for grouse and the slow-
growing firs and spruces (harbouring capercailzie and black-
cock) which give no return for capital for twenty years.
As for the remaining percentage of land, much of it is
cultivated. If it will grow crops and does not, then it ought
to. It is on this peg of a little cultivatable land unculti-
vated that agitators hang all their grievances; and land-
owners would do wisely by taking the ground from under
their feet and helping crofters to reclaim that strip of bog,
they covet, and to build a cot to look after their poor harvest
of ragged grain. The shame of the highlands to-day, and
their pressing danger during the next ten years, are the

GROUSE. 101

few incorrigible landlords whose views have not broadened
with the times, and who would tyrannize in mediaeval style
over a long-headed and thoughtful yeomanry who are germi-
nating new ambitions under the light of better education.

It is such, and the harshnesses of American millionaires,
who oust pet lambs from cottagers' paddocks, and de-
populate glens to keep a few more head of deer, that
endanger our northern shooting and strengthen the hands
of demagogues. If the Game Laws are ever abolished, and
we lapse into the gameless condition of France, for instance,
it will be the direct result of such game-preserving as this.

As for those heresies of a, higher class, the erection of
" trap " fences round deer forests, by which your neighbour's
stags can join those which are legitimately your own but
can never return to their own feeding grounds again, and
the snaring of your brother sportsman's grouse by nets put
up along his marches, they are offences of the deepest hue,
bar sinisters on the sportsman's escutcheon which should
place him beyond the pale of any friendly intercourse or
good fellowship, and reduce him at once to the rank of
a professional poultryman.

Such measures as the Access to Mountains Bill and
others affecting game preserving will come, and ought to
come shortly ; but otherwise, I think there will be no very
revolutionary game legislation for a long time, no matter
how much Radicals may bluster.

As to the natural prospects of grouse, as one shooter
observes, it has become almost a custom of late years on
very prolific moors to test the number of grouse killed by
comparison with the figures of the year 1872, the greatest
grouse year ever known both in Scotland and in Yorkshire.
In 1872, on a famous Aberdeenshire moor, 412 brace were
killed over dogs, by four guns, on the 12th ; within a fort-
night of this unexampled performance, Lord Walsingham
killed his famous bag of 423 brace to his own gun, in one
day, on his moor of Blubberhouse, in the Otley district of

102 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

Yorkshire ; 1000 brace were killed in one day at Studley
Royal, 1100 brace at Wemmergill, and, to crown all, the
highest yet recorded bag of grouse in one day, viz. 1313
brace, was made at MivRimington. Wilson's moor of Brom-
head in the Sheffield district.

During the same fortnight, 10,454 grouse were killed in
ten days' shooting at High Force ; while at Bolton Abbey,
for eighteen consecutive days, the average of grouse killed
per diem was within a fraction of 300 brace. These figures
sound like romance; yet their writer vouches for the
accuracy of them all, and they are well known to be correct
by those versed in the figures of northern moors.

The Scotch moors in the same years yielded phenomenal
results.

By way of comparison, let us take an instance or two
from the Yorkshire records of this year. On Danby moors,
belonging to Lord Downe, after killing 600 brace over dogs,
900 brace were killed in three days' driving. On Wemmer-
gill, Sir Frederick Milbank and party, six guns in all, slew
in six days 4523 grouse, or an average of 376 brace a day.
At Bromhead, in the early part of September, over 600 brace
were killed in one day.

These figures, it will be noted, are but for a few estates.
The produce in grouse of even a single Scottish shire is.
infinitely greater, and represents a very considerable amount
of human food. " But," says the illogical stump orator,
"it is food only consumed by one class." To this it should
be said that, philosophically, the class who can afford to eat
game, by doing so sets free other less expensive food for
another section of the public.

But it is the influx of visitors, the trade, and the briskness
they bring with them that must be chiefly held to benefit
the highlands, and socially justify the devoting of wide
wastes to the muir-fowl. Let it be always remembered, and
the evidence is at hand in Government Reports, that the-
farmers, large and small, of the great English game-rearing

GROUSE. 103

shires, turned out to be the warmest supporters of game-
rearing and preserving when examined before the Game
Laws Committee of the House of Parliament. It is the
orators of Manchester allies and politicians of the salubrious
slums of Chelsea who object on principle to property in fur
or feather.

The rents of shootings are far too high. This is, of
course, the result of keen competition. Worse still, the com-
petition extends itself into the actual shooting, and when an.
agent stretches a point and says, such and such an estate
ought to produce five hundred brace of grouse, the owner for
the time naturally likes to get his thousand birds, and
grumbles if he doesn't. A more fatherly interest is what
we want for our northern shootings, and less, far less
driving at the very end of the season. Mr. Archibald Stuart-
Wortley very justly remarks it is not only outside warm
corners of Suffolk coverts that " bird butcheries " take place,
they are known sometimes on the far side of the Tweed
when hot autumn days make the grouse lie in the bents
like quail nnder a hedge, and the breechloaders mow them
down at half distance remorselessly. I do not agree with
Mr. Stuart-Wortley in his opinion that Scotch moors can
never again carry such a head of game as they have done ;
though agreeing with him that during the last five years
they have been shot, "not wisely, but too well," — with too
much science, and too skilfully — for " the pot," or worse
still in some instances, " for the poulterer ! "

Everywhere firs and spruces are being planted along the
straths, and this should tend to the increase of that noble
bird the capercailzie, who is rapidly regaining his position
amongst the lochs and corries. A like cause should tend to
the multiplication of blackgame, who love the openings in
these plantations and the hollows overgrown with cotton
grass and willow. As recorded by Mr. E. Harting and
others in the Field, many attempts have been made to intro-
duce the blackcock into Ireland by the importation of living

104: BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

birds of various ages, but entirely without success. The
hatching the eggs under pheasants appears to offer a very
reasonable hope of permanent success. The young would be
accustomed to their new locality and the peculiar food
furnished by it. I do not believe in the impossibility of
introducing black game into Ireland. For a species whose
habitat extends from Scotland in the north to the New
Forest on the south coast of England, there mast be found
many suitable situations in Ireland ; and the varieties of food
on which it feeds are equally abundant in both countries.

Landed proprietors should try to introduce this noble
game bird into different localities in the Emerald Isle, select-
ing, as offering the greatest hope of success, situations similar
to those affected by the species in Great Britain — not barren
heath and moorland, but the vicinity of woods, coppices, and
semi-cultivated lands, where alder, birch, and willow twigs
are found in the spring; crowberries, whortleberries, and
similar fruits in the autumn ; heath and vaccinia all the year
round.

The ptarmigan, that bird that conspires with the seasons
to hide him, is, I greatly hope, able to take care of himself
amongst his rocky fastnesses. None of these birds do any
recognizable harm to the produce of human industry. As
for the red grouse, I see no reason why he should not nourish
and multiply in face of the grouse disease and human and
feathered foes.

Those who are fortunate enough to be able to spend
long days in August or September upon the heather must,
however, be moderate and philosophical in their sport, or we
shall be within measurable distance of exterminating one of
the finest game birds in the world and ruining a valuable
recreation. Wise protection is also essential, and the stern
suppression of unseasonable poaching.

A matter that ought, for this reason, to be of some curiosity
to the sportsman, is the abundance of capercailzie, black-
game, and grouse hanging in rows along the outside of our

GROUSE. 105

poulterers shops late into every spring, and attracting atten-
tion by their cheapness. It goes almost without saying, they
cannot all be English birds. Even their purveyors would
hardly pretend that. Whence do they come ? The answer is,
from abroad; the capercailzie and ptarmigan from Norway
and Sweden, the blackgame largely from Russia, but the red
grouse undoubtedly from the northern part of our own
kingdom, as Tetras Scoticus is unknown elsewhere — the only
creature in the British fauna that can lay claim to that
exclusiveness. Winter is a bad time for all these birds,
and the snow-covered ground which sharpens their hunger
and brings them into the snares of the poacher, also lets the
gunner in — a worse poacher as often as not than he of the
nooses and nets — by betraying their hiding-places and
showing up their crouching forms.

In autumn the capercailzie of a district are divided into
packs of fifty or a hundred, the hen birds keeping separate
from these gatherings, which feed along the sides of the
numerous lakes and morasses with which the northern
forests abound. The Swedes shoot these noble birds by
torchlight.

During the winter many capercailzie are also taken in
snares. Two stout sticks, some eighteen inches in length,
*and forked at the upper end, are driven into the ground on
either side of a pathway, and across these a third stick is
placed, from which depend as many nooses of horse hair as
may be convenient. The nooses are kept in place by blades
of grass, and should have their lower edges about three
inches from the ground. Over the cross-stick thick-leaved
pine branches are placed, with snow to cover the whole and
protect the nooses from the weather.

A simple kind of net for taking capercailzie, we read in
L. Lloyd's " Game Birds of Norway and Sweden," is termed
the " kasse," and can be used at any season of the year. It
is about thirty inches square, and made of twisted silk with
meshes so large as to readily admit the head of the bird. If

106 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

there is snow in the forest the net should be white, but if
the ground is bare, green or some other dark colour. This
net is also hung across a cattle path, the four corners secured
to bushes or to pine twigs inserted in the ground for the
purpose, by means of woollen threads of just sufficient
strength to maintain it in position. A stout silk line is
passed through the outermost meshes of the net all round,
and both ends secured to a neighbouring sapling. When
the capercailzie gets his head into the meshes he rushes
forward, the woollen threads are broken, the net drawn up
into a purse-like form, and the bird rolls over helpless with
his wings closely pressed together.

Then again, many a plump young bird that deserved a
better ending has been cut off by the "stick-nat." This is
a net usually sixty or seventy fathoms in length, twenty or
thirty inches in depth, with the meshes some three inches
square. The " telnar," answering to the cord and lead lines
of our flue-net, consists of stout packthread, but instead of
being fastened to the web itself they merely run through the
outer meshes, and hence the net travels on them in like
manner as a curtain on a brass rod. Stout sticks previously
blackened by fire, and sharpened at the lower end for more
ready insertion in the ground, are fixed crosswise to the net,,
or rather to the "telnar," ten or twelve feet apart. The
"telnar" is about one-third shorter than the net itself, and
consequently there is a quantity of loose netting called " los
garn." On the net being set this loose netting is drawn up
in folds to the cross sticks, and when the capercailzie runs
into the net, the "los garn" forms a sort of bag about the
bird, making escape next to impossible. The fowler takes
his place in the centre of the netted circle, and by " lacking"
— i.e. imitating the hen's cry — attracts and generally secures-
the whole of the covey of young birds on whose haunts he
has placed the net after flushing them. The pullets only
come to the pretended calling of the old birds when they are
very young.

GROUSE. 107

Then there are the blackgame — the russet hens and
young cocks on the game- dealer's hooks being, perhaps,
often mistaken by the careless for Scotch grouse, but the
male bird is steel-blue, and white under- plum age is distinct,
and not easily confounded with the lesser sorts.

It is from over the sea that our poulterers' shops obtain
replenishments of blackgame. Podolia, Lithuania, Courland,
Esthland, Yolhynia and Ukraine, are all forest countries,
and here indiscriminate shooting and snaring go on. During
the winter season, in Siberia, they are taken abundantly in
those elaborate set-traps which the traveller must have
noticed along the sides of the roads between villages. A
certain number of poles are laid horizontally on forked sticks
in the open forests of birch ; small bunches of corn are fixed
to them by way of lure; and at a short distance off tall
baskets of a conical figure placed with the broadest part
uppermost; just within the mouth of the basket is set a
small wheel, through which passes an axis so nicely fixed
as to admit it to play very readily, and on the least touch to
drop down and again recover its position. The birds are
soon attracted by the corn on the horizontal poles, and after
alighting upon them and feeding, they fly to the baskets and
attempt to settle on their tops, when the wheel drops side-
ways and they fall headlong into the interior.

Every one should read those fascinating volumes of
adventure in which Lloyd recounts his experiences amongst
the Northern pine forests. His pictures of snow-covered
trees, with a black-cock on every branch, eating the tender
resinous shoots said to give their flesh a peculiar flavour at
times, are enough to make the shooter envious indeed. The
Russian peasants build huts full of loopholes, like forts,
where the sawyers have been at work in the forests, or
where an open glade presents an opportunity ; and decoy
birds — mere artificial imitations made of black cloth — are
arranged around. As the grouse assemble the shooter fires
through the openings, and if the sportsman succeed in

108 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

keeping himself out of sight he may litter the ground with
slain, as the birds are not frightened by the mere sound of
the gun — a curious weakness of the grouse family. From
Norway and Sweden many a box comes to Leadenhall
Market, with this advantage, that less demand is made upon
the tenants of our own highlands, and thus a plentiful
supply is left to add variety to the " mixed bags " which
are made before winter comes, and add point and interest
to many a long day upon the "birken braes" that would
never have been " trudged-out " but for the enthusiasm their
pursuit arouses.

While black grouse killed by the score in these fashions
sell at five shillings a brace, the " white grouse " of old
writers, or, more familiarly, the ptarmigan, only reaches the
modest figure of ninepence or a shilling each bird. But
then they are pursued relentlessly. Grreenlanders capture
them in nooses hung on a long line, and drawn by two men,
who drop the nooses over their necks. They eat them with
train oil or lard, and their skins are converted into shirts to
wear next the skin. Laplanders take them by forming a
hedge with boughs of birch trees, leaving small openings at
certain intervals, and hanging over each a snare. The birds
are tempted to come and feed on birch tree catkins, and
when they pass through the openings are caught by the
neck and strangled. As "Bushman" says in "A Summer
and Winter in Lapland " : " The Laps select a birch sapling
six feet long. It is cleared of twigs, and a horsehair noose
fastened a little above the point, which is bent down and
lightly stuck in the snow, the noose being about a hands-
breadth above the surface. Small hedges are then built up
either side, and catkins or fruit stuck on their thorns. When
the bird walks up the avenue to get the bait he becomes
entangled in the noose, and his struggles free the bent
sapling, which then flies up and hoists him out of the way
of foxes, wolves, etc."

On the Hudson's Bay territories also nets twenty feefc

GROUSE. 109

square are used for the capture of ptarmigan, and they are
so numerous that ten thousand have been taken during a
single season lasting from November to April.

In reference to the former snare, and showing how the
same idea occurs to different people, it may be mentioned
that the Aleut Indians of Canada use snares of twisted deer
sinew made into a running loop and attached to a pole
nicely balanced between two branches, the noose end held
down by means of a small pin tied to the snare. Rushes are
then piled on each side of the tracks in which the grouse
run, so that they have to pass through openings in which
the snares are set ; a touch loosens the pin, and the heavier
end of the pole falls, hanging the bird in the air. Probably
the willow grouse is here spoken of — a bird that is not
uncommon in the London shops, and very numerous in the
Canadian "backwoods."

An allied bird shows equally little appreciation of danger.
A writer on caribou hunting in Forest and Stream, says :
" Just after crossing Murray's Brook, passing through some
heavy timber, we flushed from the trail a spruce partridge,
which alighted on a limb about eight feet from the ground.
William was at first going to throw his axe at it, but Joseph
urged him to snare it. A pole was cut and trimmed, and a
noose made from a bit of salmon twine tied to the end of it.
While this was being done, the simple little bird sat cuddled
up on the limb, unconscious of danger, not even looking at
us. When all was ready, William took the pole, and
stepping quietly up to the tree passed the noose over its
head, and dragged the innocent fowl from its perch." This
process repeated several times, always with success, would
seem to owe its practicability to the tameness of game in-
habiting a region where human footsteps rarely penetrate.

I have been led somewhat far afield, and fear space will
only admit of a glance at the " dodges " by which red grouse
are trapped, to the chagrin of honest sportsmen, and the
spoiling of not a few shootings. Tramps and loafers from

110 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

the nearest towns set horse-hair nooses in their runs amongst
the heather ; and, as they -often forget where many a springe
has been placed, such nooses may remain set until the
spring, and take parent birds, with nests adjacent. Again,
in autumn, the reapers — always ready for a little work of
the kind — stroll out of an evening, under the pleasant yellow
harvest moon, and peg down fine nooses atop of the barley
shocks. As a result of this sundry grouse are found there,
napping helplessly, head downwards, next morning, before
the mists are off the low meadows. A few find their way
into rabbit traps, Yarrell tells us, set on open moors, and
one has been taken in a steel hawk trap, on top of a pole;
but of all destructive and objectionable methods, netting of
grouse by fixed nets is, perhaps, the worse.

They consist of long lines of fine netting hung on poles,
usually by the proprietors of small, narrow allotments facing-
big moors, where a large head of game is reared. Now, when
grouse fly, they rise ten or twelve feet perpendicularly, and
then rush forward at the same height with a velocity which
must be seen to be understood, and thus they plunge head-
long into the meshes with a force which generally disables
them at once. Instead of fair give-and-take, which is the
rule amongst neighbouring landowners in matters of game,
these daytime poachers take all they can lay hands on, and
hardly rear a score of grouse, in return.

All this misplaced ingenuity is painful enough, and I turn
with satisfaction to more legitimate manners of sport, adding
a sketch or two from -my note-books of quiet days upon the
heather and solitary scrambles amongst pine barrens, dear
to the naturalist as well as the sportsman. If I succeed in
beguiling an idle half hour, as my own half hours have often
been beguiled, by classic pens in the literature of out of
doors, or in recalling pleasant remembrances, the object of
these chapters will have been fully obtained.

GROUSE. Ill

"THE TWELFTH."

But " the twelfth " is the white letter day of the heather
trudger. He may enjoy it "in the ranks" of a noisy but
•well meaning party of lowlanders or alone. On a recent
•occasion — various circumstances prevent us, however, from
doing conventional justice to the occasion by a big muster

of guns and a proper day's shooting — myself and J ,

equally enthusiastic, determined to try our fortune alone
since we could get no one else to join us.

Be the party big or small, the weather is always a matter
of the first importance. Fortunately it was fine and bright
when we turned out at seven a.m. on the morning of the
12th. The sun was just rising behind the hills on which the
old Scotch house was built, and throwing clear blue shadows
of pine-clad summits half way up the opposite side of the
valley, where the land was long heather and patches of
coarse grasses, broken up by thin mountain torrents and
veined by grey stone dykes. This was promising enough,
but from some cause — perhaps the purity of the air— the
sky in the Highlands is almost always blue and clear at
isuiirise, a state of things which early rising but inexperienced
.southerners take to be a sure token of a lovely day. Un-
fortunately the promise is often broken. This time, however,
.a fair sky was accompanied by a strong hoar frost covering
the grass in the shadows of the trees with a beautiful
powdering of white crystals, and glittering as it melted into
dew-drops in the fast-increasing warmth.

I roused up the other " gun " who was to accompany me,
and by 7.30 we were hard at work at breakfast, dividing
our time between the hot coffee and many good things,
and getting into our " war-paint." We agreed not to
trouble ourselves with any dogs, and when I suggested that

a keeper should come with us, J , who is rather a

Philistine in such matters, said, " Oh, bother keepers ; let's

112 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

see what we can do quite by ourselves ! We shall be much
freer to talk and smoke, and if we shoot more game than
we can carry we can easily ' cairn ' it for the moment."
So it was settled, and with guns on our shoulders and bags
at our back we started as the blue reek, beginning to
ascend in thin columns from the many chimney-stacks of
the old lodge, told us the household was astir.

Loading up at once, for there were large woods all round
the house, and my companion declared his intention of
shooting everything he saw — feather or fur — we entered one
of these pine coppices and speedily found the rabbits had
not yet retired for the day. The first shot fell to me, and
a rabbit was bowled over as he bolted across the path ahead.

Then J scored a right and left in good style, followed

by three or four more as we went forward. Every now and
then we had to stop to admire one of the many ferny hollows
amongst the grey rocks and under the drooping branches
of the spruce firs; dingles so deep and shady that, even
at midday, they were silent and cool, and the sunlight only
made its way through the thick roof of leaves overhead to
play about for a short hour at midday on the soft carpet of
moss and short grasses.

At the top of the wood was a shallow pond — a tank we
should call it in India — of an acre or so in extent, and much
overgrown with rushes. This we approached with caution,
but no sooner did the smallest patches of our deer-stalking
caps show through the bushes than the ducks we had
expected to find " at home " rose with loud splashing and
many guttural quacks. I had one chance for half a moment
at the mallard as he went oif through the tree-tops, and
firing in an instinctive manner, the moment the gun touched
my shoulder, he fell back headlong into the water, and, after
a desperate endeavour to dive, succumbed. My shot put up
a family of teal from the far end of the pond, who imme-
diately separated and flew round and round their home as
though loth to leave. This hesitation was fatal to one of

GROUSE. , 113

them, for I got another snap-shot exactly as the bird came
between myself and the sun ; and, very considerably to my
astonishment, down he came on to dry land. When we went
to pick him up, the sunlight on his extended wings and head
really made him appear as lovely a bird as there could be.

A little further on a heron flew overhead, out of shot,
however — like all his kindred, shy and careful. I remember,
one morning early, rowing up a quiet and secluded creek at
the estuary of a Cornish river, and as the tide ebbed, I
punted the light skiff along by the shallow margins, and no
less than ten times got successfully within sixty yards of as
many separate herons, all busy fishing ; but nothing would
persuade them to let me come just the requisite fifteen paces
closer. The manner in which they rose and flew away,
directly that distance was passed, was most striking, and
showed a wonderful unanimity in their ideas of safety.
These Scottish herons often breed on" the ground, on rough
mountain sides, contrary as it may seeni to their general
habits.

Finally, after a long pull up-hill, we came to the outskirts
of the moorland, and " forming in line," as J said, we pro-
ceeded to work at once, for already the sun was fairly high,
and the grouse might be expected to have made their early
morning meal of heather tops — rather dry food, one would
fancy — and to have settled down for a comfortable siesta on
the sunny side of the grey boulders, or heather clumps,
stretching as far as the eye could see.

With what a rough interruption the 12th comes to these
pleasant morning meditations of the grouse ! What a panic
must seize the new broods, and how the old birds' hearts
must fail them when they hear the guns, and know the great
anti-grouse conspiracy of last year has broken out again !
Our plan was to walk about fifteen yards apart in long beats
across the range on which our moor lay; so working our way
up to a well-known summit, almost amongst the clouds,
where we might find a wide prospect to gaze on as we made

I

114 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

our midday lunch, already the faint reports of the guns
were coming from all sides, as the day's work commenced on
the neighbouring moors. Across the valley, where the land,
rising abruptly, exposed all the face of the deep-tinted strath
to us, we could see a party at work, and in the bright morning
air, as thin and limpid as ether, it was easy to recognize
several well-known forms of friends and broad-shouldered
gillies. Now and again we caught a faint glint of sunshine
from a gun-barrel, and tben there would be a puff of cotton-
white smoke, followed rapidly by another and another ; and
as the wreaths lengthened out on the light breeze the sound
of the shots came to us one by one, and perhaps even the
shrill whistling of a keeper, calling in a wild young dog that
had gone in pursuit of the covey up the hillside.

The first thing we put up was an old cock grouse, who
hardly showed for a moment, as he went down a hollow ; but
this fixed our attention on the work in hand, and we went
forward with guns ready and determination on our faces.
Up got another bird, and, determined to draw first blood,

J fired immediately. We walked up, and there lay a

grey-hen — a forbidden bird until the twentieth. However,
J — — said nothing, but slipped it into his bag, and we moved
forward. Two or three grouse followed, one at a time, and
we are just beginning to keep rather a lax look-out — my
companion marching along with his gun over his shoulder,
and myself lost in admiration of the wide-stretching ranges
of mountains, rising to the northward step above step in tiers
to the sky, purple in the shadows, green in the sunlight,
with twenty shades of grey blending above — when from the
long heather at our feet comes a cackle, a flapping of wings,
and up rise some fifteen grouse as though they had all been
thrown up by the same spring. We got one with our first
two shots, and another with our next two — by no means good
shooting, but, to tell the truth, we did not expect them just
then, as my companion said. We picked up the slain, and
as we straightened down their feathers, could not help admir-

GROUSE. 1L5

ing their beautiful sleek forms, their roundness of shape and
compactness of build ; in fact, one could almost trace the
effect of the healthy mountain air in them. They would no
more suit the lowlands than a loch trout would become an
Essex ditch.

A few yards further again a solitary bird got up on my

side, and was brought down in better style. Then J

had a chance at two with like result, and so we went along
for a couple of hours. Whether it was that the birds had
not done feeding, or for some other reason, they lay well,
and in general rose by twos and threes instead of coveys, an
arrangement which suited us well, as the wholesale rises on
this, the opening day, shook our nerves very considerably.
I have listened to wild elephants charging through the dense
bamboo thickets of a southern Indian jungle, and expecting
every moment to see a great colossus bearing down on my
stand, but somehow it was not half so deranging to my
shooting as the sudden springing from heather of a whole
concourse of loud- winged grouse. A little later on, when
the bags were becoming very heavy and our thoughts turned
to lunch and the bottled beer waiting for us, we entered a
rough piece of land with a rather thick growth of spruce
firs. This we beat carefully, until about the centre our
nerves were again tried by the rising of a monstrous brown
bird, which, as it went away down the slope like a runaway
boulder, seemed as large as a big turkey. We both threw

up our guns, but J fired first, and down it came amid a

cloud of feathers, though the distance was a fair forty yards,
and the shot only N"o. 6. We knew it must be a capercailzie,
and such it turned out to be, a fine young bird of nine or ten
pounds, an addition to the bag which decided us at once to
strike straight up the hillside to the spring, at the edge of
which we were to tiffin.

There seems to be no legal close time for these grand
wild fowl ; as far as Scotland is concerned their protection
may safely be left to the owners of the wild mountain forests

116 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

in which they dwell. They are not much in the poacher's
line, and with fair play from the sportsman will probably be
well able to take care of themselves. As to the common
charge brought against them, the damage they do in pulling
off the young tips of the spruces and firs is as nothing to the
havoc made amongst those trees in the same way by the
squirrels ; but even were they very guilty on that count,
they are magnificent birds and well worth a little indulgence.

We had been at lunch some few minutes, comfortably
seated in the long heather, with the provender spread out
in front and our guns behind, when a demand rose for water
to mix with some " whuskey " which we proposed to drink to
the success of our sport, and going down to fetch it from

the little pool that bubbled up close at our feet, J put up

a woodcock from the stones where it had been crouching and
watching us, certainly not twenty paces away. It was useless
for my companion to call to me to fire, for by the time I had
got my gun the "cock " was half way across the valley.

Then our lunch proceeded in peace, and for a time we
divided our attention between aesthetic admiration of the
glorious wide prospect stretching around us in an amphi-
theatre . of rugged hills, broken here and there by pale
mountain tarns or rushing streamlets, and the more practical
occupation of demolishing beef sandwiches and emptying
sundry bottles of beer. It was curious to listen to the silence
which had come over the valley ; every one seemed to be at
tiffin like ourselves, all the guns were hushed, and nothing
broke the stillness but the occasional call of a grouse down
below getting his scattered family together, or the far-heard
whistle of a curlew.

We spent half an hour over the after- tiffin pipe, and then
rather reluctantly roused ourselves, stretched, and after
having cairned the game and the luncheon basket with
heather and rocks, we shouldered arms and again proceeded
to carry the war into the enemy's country.

The afternoon added a few brace to our total, a hare,

GROUSE. 117

which was very cleverly stopped by J at a wonderful

distance, a plover that flew overhead in an irresistibly tempting
way, and a couple of wood pigeons returning from a foray in
the low-lying barley fields. We were also guilty of the lives
of two hen blackgame, which met their fate by rising
amongst a covey of their cousins the red grouse, and under
such circumstances, in the hurry of the moment, I for one
can rarely tell the difference between the two species.

Finally, as the sun sloped down in the west and the grey
rocks were beginning to have very distinct shadows, we
reached the outskirts of a deep pine forest, clothing the
whole summit and side of a hill on our ground, where,
bidding adieu for the time to the grouse, we scrambled over
the lichen-grown boundary dyke, and picked our way amongst
the dense stunted firs, all on the qui vive for another caper-
cailzie, several families of which made this their special
home. The intense solitude and wildness of these " pine
barrens " are difficult to describe to one who does not know
them well. For my part, when I first made their acquain-
tance fresh from the lowlands, I was struck with surprise.
It seemed some chance had swept me from the crowded
little British isle to the wilds of Siberia. And what bird
befits these great solitudes so well as the hermit-like " cock
of the woods ! " But I may have something more to say
about these grand game birds below. For the present we
made one beat lengthways through the dense forest, already
in the gloom of approaching dusk, adding to the bag, a wood-
cock, another capercailzie, a couple of wood pigeons, a hare,
and half a dozen mountain rabbits — a species differing very
considerably from the lowland form.

When we counted up the spoil that evening in the
verandah of the lodge, though not large it was pleasantly
varied. We had stocked the game-room for the time, and
if we had not shot very many brace of grouse, we had at
least got that what we went out for — a capital rough day's
shooting.

118 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

AMONG THE BLACKCOCK.

Why Blackcock enjoy exemption from the dread disease
which ever and anon carries off their near relatives, the red
grouse, sends down the rents of highland shooting, clipping
the expenditure of the lairds, and influencing the finances
of one-half of the British isles, can only be determined when
the true nature of the malady is better understood. But
many things favour a long and happy life to these birds.
Their food is various ; frost-bitten heather in the spring
matters little to them ; from the time the snow melts on the
mountain tops to the period of its coming again, their bill
of fare is ample and full — thus they are placed beyond the
reach of hard times and sickness-bringing scarcity. Then
their powerful bodies and large size must modify the courage
of attacking hawks, giving them little " stomach for the
fight," the same cause doubtless repelling the attacks of the
marauding hill crows and ground vermin, who think twice
before robbing the nest of so stoutly made a bird as the
watchful and courageous grey-hen. Lastly, it might be
suggested that the freer flight and less gregarious habits of
the moor-fowl save them from what is probably the most
pregnant cause of grouse disease, the overstocking of estates.

This preamble, however, is merely to introduce the fact
that, disappointed with the grouse last season, and yet bent
upon getting something in the way of sport out of our ten
thousand acres, I turned my attention, directly the 20th of
August gave lawful sanction, to the " grouse of the second
degree." Let me place before you the surroundings of
myself and another equally ardent "gun" on the eve of
that long-looked-for date. No palatial shooting-lodge this
time. A scorn of rheumatism and a taste for roughing it
had determined us to take time by the forelock, and to
march out into the enemy's country over night and camp

GROUSE. 119

in a shepherd's " shiel," in order to find the birds on the
feed the next morning by dawn, and run up half-a-dozen
brace if possible before the stay-at-homes were even thinking
of turning out. The time, then, is eleven p.m. ; we have
made our way three miles out to our destination, and a
roaring fire of birch logs flashes and crackles in one corner
of a rough stone hut of very modest dimensions; the grey
smoke ascending in spirals to the roof of heather and
bracken fern, whence, after much consideration and many
contortions, it finds a way through a weak corner, and dis-
appears into the darkness. Though rough, the hut is by no
means uncomfortable. The crannies between the stones
have been filled with moss and fern, while plenty of both
at one end of the cabin form a delightful lounge, either to
sit or to sleep on. The guns, cartridge bags, etc., with a
stray head or two of game picked upon the way out, hang
from pegs or lean in corners, while my companion heaps
logs on the fire with one hand, the other meanwhile keeping
in scientific motion a frying pan, whence comes a most
appetizing odour of grilled supper. I myself, having fetched
an ample supply of water from the neighbouring burn,
demand and obtain a place for the kettle on the fire, when a
brew of tea is soon ready, and in less than a minute we are
hard at work at our simple m'eal, our knees for tables, and
wide rounds of home-made bread for plates. At such times
the conclusion comes with irresistible force, that too much
culture deadens half the enjoyment of life, and that man
in a state of semi-wildness, " earning the food he ate, and
pleased with what he got," must indeed have lived in the
true Golden time. Perhaps more mature consideration will
lessen the envy with which a man is apt to regard such
a state of simplicity, for it is a very doubtful point whether
freedom from butchers' bills would compensate for an occa-
sional involuntary fast of a day or two when game was wild
or scarce. Yet a return now and then to primitive manners,
an unshackling of the harness of civilization, and a brief

120 B1ED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

period spent in imitation of our huntsmen ancestors, must
always prove attractive to a well-constituted sportsman's
mind and body. The camp fire alone is a delight of the first
degree. "Men scarcely know how beautiful flame is," nor
truly appreciate it ; but when a thousand stars are twinkling
overhead, the crisp crackle of the wood and the flying sparks
impress the mind with a pleasant sense of companionship in
solitude and love for the great Promethean gift which is felt
but dimly under more familiar circumstances. Yet, though
Lares and Penates are usually looked upon as strictly house-
hold gods, the resting-place of the shooter or traveller, if
only for a short time, needs its altar as much as does the
most fixed abode. What could strike a pilgrim with more
sense of discomfort than a halt under the canopy of heaven
without the cheerful light of leaping red flames ? Can we
imagine bright stories and laughter as the evening meal is
made among men sitting with feet towards darkness ? No ;
the idea is barbarous. Little matter place, time, or tempera-
ture, the sojourner in the wilds, on halting, turns his first
attention to a cheerful fire, in presence of which he can con-
tentedly enjoy well-earned repose. With it the hunter's food
is ambrosial, his drink, though it come from a hill stream,
is nectar for the gods, while his sleep, if it be only on the
mattress of earth, is the choicest gift in the liberal apron of
good mother Nature.

All these pleasures, which make out-of-door life so
fascinating, we acknowledged as we sat by our fire, en-
livening the evening by stories and laughter, and piling
up the logs till the flames threaten destruction to the roof
of sod and heather, our only protection from the night dews ;
till, our pipes having burnt out twice or thrice, we drank
health to the morrow, and, wrapping ourselves in the ready
tartans of our adopted heath, with a final touch to our heather
couches, were soon in the unsubstantial hunting grounds of
sleep. But the pleasantest repose will give way before a
prearranged determination to wake at a certain hour ; and

GEOUSE. 121

thus the earliest dawn, stealing through the chinks of the
doorway, disturbed us as effectually as a louder summons
would have done. We were soon up, and while the other
gun replenished the camp fire I went for water from the
tumbling stream to make the early coffee, the very thought
of which gave us an appetite. How fascinating the world
was in its " beauty sleep ! " The sky an undecided purple,
with here and there a star twinkling faintly ; and, down in
the east, a great straw-coloured planet lying just upon the
deep, black, rocky outline of a towering mountain summit.
The stillness meanwhile was worth listening to. Even the
rill by which I stood, regardless of my errand, seemed quieter
than usual, and fell into its deep pool between the rocks
less obtrusively than heretofore, not another sound breaking
the silence far or near. The whole glen, indeed, was buried
in calm repose and peace ; below, the black, profound,
silent shadows, contrasted here and there with pale streamers
and patches of mist marking the bogs or peat holes ; above,
on either hand, against the sky the rugged edges of the hills
were now just touched with a suspicion of the coming day,
their outlines growing sharper every minute. But an im-
patient shout from my companion brought me to the con-
templation of the practical. The kettle was soon filled at
the bubbling cascade, and, hurrying back, we were forthwith
busy in the preparation of a hasty meal, for we were bent on
watching the sun make his rise from a point of vantage, and
there was little time to be lost.

Nor was our energy without its reward. The meal over,
and the things replaced for the moment in the hut, with guns
on our shoulders and our sprightly dogs at heel, we boldly
turned our faces to the steep northern ascent ; and, hand
over hand, through deep rock-bestrewn bracken, and dim
ghostly tangles of dwarf birches and alders, silent and quiet
in the cool air of the early morning, we made our way, until,
somewhat breathless and warm after ten minutes' hard
climbing, a rocky ledge was gained commanding a mag-

122 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

nificent panorama, and we sank down on the moss to await
the rising of the sun.

Soon my companion exclaimed, " Here he conies ! " as
a pink light flushed into the sky like the reflection of a
far-away conflagration. Quickly it rolled up till it reached
the purple sky right above us, deepening into crimson, and
bringing out with a touch of colour on each, that grew every
moment more vivid, squadrons of light fleecy clouds, of whose
presence we had hitherto been ignorant. Then the light
in the east streamed strongly up from the nether world,
catching the distant hill-tops, and spreading rapidly from
peak to peak, touching, as it went, each with gold, until
they stood out from the purple shadows like the jewelled
bosses of a shield ; while the wonderful refulgence ran down
the gullies, and, glancing from the high plateaus, passed,
above and below, through a hundred changing shades of
flame and orange.

Finally, while we were still watching this shifting trans-
formation scene, before we knew it the sun himself shone
from the brilliant masses of clouds, and all the hillsides
woke to life.

For some time longer we sat in silence, admiring the
beauty of the scene and the fresh, sweet air ; bub our
thoughts soon turned to the object of the expedition, and
being on likely ground, we at once proceeded in search of
sport.

It has always appeared to me that the blackcock is a very
early bird ; to shoot him the start cannot be made too soon
after sunrise. He rarely rises so well or seems so active later
in the day, differing in this from the grouse ; and should the
sportsman wish to find the birds easily, and to see them on
the move in all directions, he must adapt himself to their
ideas of "catching the early worm."

No sooner are we started, and the spaniels " hied " on,
than they begin, after a few casts to right and left, to draw
ahead, with tails swinging nervously, and noses sniffing the

GROUSE. 123

ground. My companion nods significantly to me, and we
close up with a dog, who, giving a hasty glance in the most
sagacious manner, to assure himself that we are at hand,
plunges forward, and out of a clump of bracken hurtles into
the air a large bird, all black, who, with noisy wings, shoots
fifteen or twenty feet upwards, and makes off up at the glen
at a great pace.

We recover our composure as rapidly as may be, and I
take the bird as he tops a stunted birch thirty yards off,
listening with satisfaction to the heavy thud of his fall, when
a motion of the hands sends a dog off at a gallop to retrieve
him. We are following, when another cock gets up, and,
rising high, tries to fly over us towards the opposite side of
the valley ; but this is the height of rashness, for we have
already had eight days at the grouse, and are " in the swing."
The other gun takes the shot, and the big bird comes down
back first, with a long trail of feathers behind him. We
cannot help admiring them for a couple of minutes. Mine
is wanting a feather or two of his neck — a common occur-
rence at this time of the year, when the moulting season is
on; but the other is quite perfect, and, as the first of the
season, his twisted lyre-like tail has been promised to grace
a highland bonnet on a certain fair Saxon head. The blue
gleams of light on the back contrast beautifully with the
delicate white of the slender feathers under the wings, the
exposing of which as he rises makes him so conspicuous a
mark against the green of the bracken ferns ; but, to my
mind, the finest thing about him is the bold build of his head
— the strong black bill, slightly hooked and sharp edged, the
thick neck set with glossy black feathers, and the bright
eyes, with their curious overlay of close scarlet wattles, giving
him a bold domineering expression that fits well with his
disposition and habitat.

In size there can be no comparison between the lordly
blackgame (the cocks of which reach as much as four or four
and a half pounds, and the hens over two) and the smaller

124 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

and lighter grouse, nor are they alike in habits. The grouse
is a bird of great attachment to its mate. If, unlike the
eagle, he does not remain faithful to her until death decrees
a divorce, he yet keeps troth for a year and a day, doing some
share of domestic duties, and taking part in beating back
the pillaging hawks when they swoop down on the young
broods. The blackcock is a roisterer of different habits, with
affections so unstable that they only serve to make him
" daft " and contemptible to all respectable birddoni for a
few weeks in the spring. It is he who comes down in the
earliest mornings of the new year from his perch among the
pine branches where he retires overnight, to be out of
the way of prowling vermin, and to keep his body — of which
he is very careful (the result of being a bachelor nine
months out of the twelve) — out of the cold ; and, winging
his way through the thin mists of early dawn to some quiet
open spot, alights, and commences that ridiculous love dance
that has been so often described by naturalists and sportsmen.
How any reasonable gray-hen can admire such a strutting,
puffed up, and excitable wooer as he then shows himself to
be, it is difficult to understand ; . but doubtless she knows it is
all for her sake, and that, in the female mind, is excuse broad
enough, no doubt, to cover any folly.

There every morning the cocks strut and crow, pacing
round in well-worn circles with every variety of style; now
and then fighting terrible combats with glossy black-armoured
rivals, who come at their challenge from other ridges and
slopes, and carry on the conflict before

Store of ladies whose bright eyes
Kain influence, and adjudge the prize.

But as soon as the frosts of winter have grown thinner on
the hill-tops, and no longer, even at earliest dawn, turn to
ice beads the dew on the burn-side bents, the blackcock re-
tires to sober bachelor life, and for the rest of the year attends
strictly to his own affairs ; in pleasant weather haunting the
highest ground he can find, and roaming hither and thither

GfiOUSE. 125

with a few other " good fellows " on the light wings of fancy;
but coming down to the more sheltered hollows, where the
hens assiduously sit or tend their chicks, when storms break
above and grey mist sweeps backward and forward in a dull,
damp sea of vapour along the mountain summits.

To-day, as soon as the sun was well up, we found the
birds thickly upon the elevated ground we were now beating,
which at another time, after a period of wind or rain, would
have been useless for our purpose ; but a little practice soon
makes one familiar with such matters, and before long we
brought ourselves to believe that we were as knowing judges
of likely localities for the birds as they themselves were in
selecting good feeding grounds.

Soon we approach a place where the land dips suddenly
out of sight, obviously the deep bed of a mountain torrent,

worn by countless ages of fretting; and here J makes a sign

to me to approach with caution ; so, waving back the dogs,
who at once come to heel, we walk slowly to the brink and
look over. Nothing ! Yes, but there is ! And down below
us, perhaps fifty feet, are five blackcock on a little patch of
green sward under a dead lightning-withered rowan bush.

For a moment or two, during which we are unnoticed, we
watch the slow, leisurely way in which they are picking the
seeds from the tall grass and rushes, and their self-satisfied
air as they walk daintily about. It is a pretty sight, but very
brief, for soon a bright eye is turned on us with doubt and
hesitation for an instant, and then, when the danger in its
full force bursts on the discoverer, and he recognizes the
hated Saxon at arm's length, a hoarse cry escapes him,
throwing the whole covey into a panic. With hardly a
glance at the foe, they follow their leader's example, tossing
themselves into the air and dashing off as fast as muscular
wings can carry them. Forthwith our guns open fire, and,
as the smoke clears away, a victim or two lie amongst the
ferns and ling.

These are followed by others that we come upon suddenly,

126 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

still making their early morning meal in the soft ground
among the sedges, or in pleasant alleys between the banks
of bracken, just gaining its autumn tints of brown and amber
— lovely enough, though somewhat melancholy, as marking
the downward steps of the glorious summer.

We have as many varieties of shots as we could wish, and,
in places where the broken rock masses are piled numerous
and thickly, with overhanging brushwood, the shooting is
very difficult. Now a bird will slip quietly off a ledge of
such a pile of stones, and, gliding down hawklike with out-
stretched wings, will, unless we are very sharp, be out of
sight before our gun can be brought to position.

Other birds will rise from among the thick tangle of
vegetation and debris underneath fallen trees as the shooter
approaches, stealing away on the far side with most aggra-
vating expedition.

To show, however, how close the game will sometimes lie
in such places, I may mention that on one occasion we came
to a spot where some fallen timber was in confusion amongst
the ferns under a clump of birches. We halted, and, not
seeing any game in the neighbourhood, lit our pipes, and
while resting for a few minutes, made, as usual, a fire,
the smoke of which blew about in every direction ; and yet,
when we once more moved forward, our guns carried
idly under our arms, up sprang a blackcock, followed by
four of his boon companions, from a little island of bracken
that we had looked upon with contempt. We were so aston-
ished and taken aback that a couple of charges of shot sent
after them did not touch a feather.

With such varied adventures — sometimes, by blunders
or lost chances, going down deeply in our own estimation ;
and, again, soothing our ruffled spirits by a brilliant snap-
shot, or good piece of luck — the bag all the time grew
heavier and heavier, until the finishing touch was put to our
endurance by a gigantic blue hare, which, getting up between
us, was fired at so exactly on the same moment that the two

GEOUSE. 127

reports were merged in one, and he rolled over very dead
into the dry basin of a little streamlet.

" I think you shot him," said my companion, dubiously
lifting the heavy beast with some effort ; but, remembering
that we each carried our own game, I modestly tried to
persuade him that it was his victim. But that would not
do, so we forthwith built a hollow cairn of stones on a con-
spicuous ledge, and consigned our game to it until we could
send a keeper up for them.

By this time we had worked our way to the crest of the
range, and a fair prospect of hill and dale lay below us,
a chequered plain of land and water as far as the eye could
reach — lochs without end or number, so numerous they
seemed, and at our feet the noble reaches of one made famous
for ever by a touch of the magic wand of the great "Wizard
of the North," " Loch Katrine's mirror blue."

" Let's try the locklet for teal," said the energetic gun at
my elbow, for ever disturbing me when my attention is
absorbed in the sublime ; so we turned down a grassy slope
on the plateau top, and, crossing some bare peat bogs, where
the water, brown and dark, stood in the holes and ditches
left by the subsidence of the surface, we walked in silence
for half a mile, till a rugged hillock rose before us, and
behind it lay an oft-visited mountain tarn, marking the
water-shed. This spot was in general a sure find at this
hour of the morning for teal or duck. We divided our force
so as to take the enemy in front and rear.

Who is there that has seen one of these wild, unknown,
unnamed sheets of water can forget the weird spot ? More
lonely places it would be hard to find upon the face of
the earth. The hot sands of the desert, the dense, gloomy
depth of a tropical jungle, never conveyed to my mind
half the sense of loneliness that one of these little lakes
does. All around their borders the gaunt, uncanny rushes
wave and tremble as though at their roots lay some worse
secret than that of the Asiatic king; and heavy, sodden

128 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

mosses, green, yellow, and red as blood, stretch out on every
side in a palpitating, aqueous flooring, fringing here and
there unwholesome pools and dykes, where the water sits,
wondering to what ocean it shall flow. Melancholy, pre-
historic water-plants hug themselves with the idea that the
world is back again in the Miocene period of its existence ;
and then, worse than all, killing the tender flowers, and
ruling the region with endless tyranny, the mountain wind
sweeps for ever over the morasses, chill and cutting even
when the sun is at its highest, shaking the reeds and cotton
grass, and ruffling the surface of the waters that lap per-
petually with discontented mournfulness on the peaty
margins of their prisons. Yet the ducks like such places,
rearing their families in security, and we must suppose
equal contentment, amongst the deep beds of rank water
weeds. Here we hoped to find them ; nor were we dis-
appointed. Creeping round the sheltering knoll, and timing
our walk so well that we both came in reach of the pool at
the same moment, we examined its surface, and saw with
great satisfaction a flight of widgeon riding in the centre
on the miniature surf ; some teal feeding on the mud with
much satisfaction, if we might judge by their deep absorp-
tion ; a brood of flappers under the care of an old duck, and
a couple of mallards performing their morning toilets on
a tufty island of coarse grass ; in fact, our only wish was
that there had been some more guns at hand to help in the
foray. According to agreement, I crawled slowly forward
again, after a minute's rest, in order to get as near as
possible before they rose; but it is always the unexpected
that happens. I had gone some distance down a rather wet
peat channel, much marked with the " spoor " of sheep and
mountain hares, till, thinking it might be as well to have
another look at the locklet, I raised my head with the
utmost caution, and was about to take a view of my sur-
roundings, when a cluster of brown bodies in the stunted
heather, not five yards away, caught my eyes ; and there,

GEOUSE. 129

close crouched, was a covey of red grouse, totally unconscious
of my presence, but entirely absorbed in watching the move-
ments of my companion a hundred paces off, who in his turn
had both eyes fixed on the ducks, from whose sight he was
well sheltered by a fallen rock. Such cases must often occur
in the field. Every sportsman probably passes over much
game that is well aware of his presence, though he may be
totally ignorant of theirs ; but it is not often that a third
person gets a chance of witnessing unobserved the process.
Needless to say, I was seen almost instantly, and the whole
covey rose on the wing like one bird at the alarm cry of the
old cock. The ducks also heard the cry, and, knowing by
that curious freemasonry which exists amongst birds that
it meant more than an ordinary summons to seek new feeding
grounds, the "flappers" melted from sight into the sedges
like shadows, while the widgeon and teal flew up, and,
taking a wide circle, came directly over us with " loud

whispering wings." J had already fired both barrels at

the grouse, which he declared had gone by like a whirlwind
not more than a dozen yards overhead, and had brought down
(tell it not in Gath) three birds. So the widgeon were left
to me, my first shot being an unexplainable miss, though
the next one mended matters by stopping the hindermost
of the flight just as he was passing out of reach. By the
time we had reloaded, the teal, according to custom, came
round again in a wide circle over the bog, and three of their
number fell as they passed over us ; but the mallards and
other ducks had gone straight away down the valley.

Then we went down to the pond, where, after a brief bit
of paddling, the dog came upon the brood of flappers, and
put them up beautifully two at a time, and we got six out
of eight with seven shots. By this time the sun was well
up, and we were very conscious of the lightness of the early
morning meal we had taken; so, distributing the game, we
took a u bee-line " for the encampment, and twenty minutes
afterwards we came in sight of the camp fire and a fine

K

130 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

breakfast spread on the heather, already seated beside which
were the other guns, who were to join us in the serious work
of the day, after some much-needed refreshment had been
taken. Many and various were the jokes attempted at our
cost, but we treated them with the lofty derision we could
so well afford, and never, not even late in the afternoon,
when we were conscious of a certain stiffness about the
knees, the result of early rising, did we regret the night
in the open and the marvellous beauty of a highland sunrise.
There is more sweetness in the early hours of this sea-begirt
kingdom than perhaps one in a thousand of its inhabitants
knows.

CAPERCAILZIE SHOOTING.

Cunning and strong while alive, and by no means a bad
table bird dead, the capercailzie lives amongst the finest of
natural scenery, as we have said ; to stalk and shoot him
is fairly good sport with the additional attraction of glorious
exercise. Driving the great grouse over previously hidden
gunners is, however, little less than a shame. He does not
lend himself kindly to this latter sport, and his bulk is so
large that the simplest bungler who can pull a trigger gets
more than a fair chance, as the mass of feathers, borne on
broad wings, sweeps through the glades of the forest.

With this theory in mind, I on one occasion made a quiet
raid upon the "cock of the woods " in his native fastnesses,
before deeper snow than that already fallen on the hills
round our Scotch lodge rendered his haunts inaccessible.
Thus one morning, when all necessary preparations had been
seen to overnight, cartridges loaded, boots greased, etc., we
were ready for a start immediately an early breakfast was
over — "we," on this occasion, being myself and a useful
retriever, as fond of rough sport as his master, and possessing
a keen nose, an admirable temper, and a thick coat, all

GROUSE. 131

essential requisites for the species of hunting we were going
to undertake.

Forthwith we set out, climbing the wire fence that
separated the civilization of the grounds from the wilderness
of the woods beyond, and walking quickly- over the crisp
white snow, frozen as dry as sand by north winds blowing it
hither and thither all night, until a shrubbery of pines
iindergrown by furze bushes was reached. Disregarding the
rabbits that peopled this region and were skipping about
amongst the roots in scores, I reserved my fire for a moment
or two, as just ahead, at top of the little burn coming
tinkling down the hill through a channel rugged with icicles,
lay a reedy marsh surrounded by larches and overhung by
willows — a likely spot for ducks on such a day as this ; so
we moved slowly up, taking advantage of thick patches of
snow to deaden all sound of our footfalls, with increasing
caution as we drew near the spot whence the surface of the
ponds could be seen. A few yards further the willows rose
above the gorge bushes ahead, and from the last sheltering
bush the weed-grown surface of the partially frozen tarn
could be observed. The first glance round was not promising,
but a second and more careful scrutiny showed a bunch of
.ducks feeding quietly at the far end of the water.

Despatching a handy stable boy, watching the proceeding
Avith vast interest from a neighbouring lane, to make a
detour and take th'em in rear, I repressed the ardour of the
dog, who was trembling in every limb with cold and excite-
ment, and waited with eyes on the birds and finger on the
triggers. For a few minutes they continued their methodical
feeding, coasting along the half-frozen edges of the reeds,
and now and again tipping themselves up to explore the mud
of the bottom. But soon they get an uneasy fancy that
something is approaching them from the far side, and up go
their heads, and they crowd together, turning this way and
that in nervousness, which comes to a climax as the form of
our boy breaks through the bushes. A second afterwards,

132 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

kicking the water into foam behind them, they rise as though
lifted by one pair of wings, and bear straight down for mey
sweeping over the pointed tops of the snow-laden firs, about
thirty yards distant, with the early sunlight showing up th&
white feathers lining their wings. The leader gets a charge
of No. 5, and comes down unmistakably to the dry ferns,
and another bird has the other barrel, which results in it
dropping both legs and falling in. a long incline "grounds'*
about fifty yards away. This is too much for " Jack," whoy
with a yelp of delight breaks loose and returns in a few
seconds with the mallard in his jaws.

Picking up the birds and slipping in two more cartridgesr
we go on again under the firs through a gap in a stone wallr
and enter upon a tract of rather wild ground, where the
rabbits were lying out in their snow couches in great numbers,
to the intense delight of the dog, who chivied them hither
and thither — bad form of course on his part and mine to
allow it, but what can you expect from a dog who has not
been out for a week ? So I let him ran riot for a time, but
when ten minutes' tramping brought us to the slope of the
great hill, and the long shadows of the pines fell on the snow
above us, "Jack" was called up, and put in an appearance
from a distant field with his tongue hanging out, panting-
prodigiously, and a general air of abashment. Matters
were then pointed oat to him, and he was instructed to
restrain undue zeal and keep to heel, he at once taking
up that position. We scrambled over a tumble- down stone
dyke, and entered the pleasant shade of pine woods. Wha.t
can be more lonely, yet what more attractive in its solitude
to a lover of nature than a great pine barren ? Once fairly
in, the sky is only to be seen directly overhead. All round
on every side, as the wanderer turns hither and thither,
stretch the long silent vistas of the wood, scores and
hundreds of fir stems, grey with lichens and long pendent
mosses, stretching away to the remote parts, where they are
blended into a confused mass that appears impenetrable

GROUSE. 133

until approached when the spaces open out, giving fresh
views of new aisles. Here and there the monotony of grey
is broken by the low thick branches of a spruce fir coming
down to the ground, where they spread in an ever green
canopy, forming snug hiding-places against chance showers ;
or perhaps one of these trees has been blown completely
over, and, lying along the ground, forms just such a sort of
shelter as the capercailzie loves.

Amidst such a forest of stems we found ourselves now,
nothing to guide us to our direction but the slope of the
land, which was, it must be confessed, very decided," and we
were soon scrambling upwards hand over hand through
broken masses of rocks, tumbled about like the ruins of a
great city, the spaces between them filled up with deep snow,
through which here and there appeared the tall stalk of a
withered foxglove and masses of amber and golden fern.
Scrambling over such stuff in the semi-twilight, with a
heavy gun, a game bag, and supply of cartridges is decidedly
warm work, tending to make the climber a little careless as
to where he is going. Thus it was that the best chance of
this morning was lost, a young roebuck upon which I came
suddenly in a little natural hollow, vanishing almost as
silently as a ghost before I could get my gun ready, leaving
me not a memento but his spoor 011 the fresh snow, and
the remembrance of his tawny hide as he glided down the
valley. We did not pursue, being but too well aware of the
uselessness of such a proceeding. These roebuck are most
fascinating little deer, and many a bright summer morning
when the blackcock have been calling and fighting all round,
and the world has been wringing wet with dew, have I been
after them. They are much harder to find than red deer,
owing to close keeping to the shelter of coppices and forest
glades, where a chance shot is all that can be got now and
again. The only sure way of obtaining a shot is to lie up
outside a plantation, long before dawn, and wait patiently
for their coming out to feed ; and they won't do that if you

134 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

" stand between the wind and their nobility," or if they
catch the smallest sound or the faintest movement from
behind your screen.

However, to return to our capercailzie. After the mis-
adventure with the buck, strict attention to business was the
order of the day, and being1 so high up the mountain side
that a vast extent of snow-laden fir-tops were visible below,
I struck along the slope — decidedly better walking — and
proceeded with due caution. Everywhere round about the
white covering of the ground was pitted with marks of the
mountain rabbits which abound in these wilds, and were
skipping hither and thither in tempting style, which would
certainly have brought retribution on them had I not been
after better game. These hill conies are as different as can
be from their cousins of the lowlands ; their fur is much
greyer — more like that of the badger, their limbs are shorter,
and their build altogether closer and more compact. It
might have been feared that naturalists, in bestowing Latin
names on the group, would have taken note of these facts
and made the variety into a species ; but it is well it has not
chanced so, for such dividing where Nature has made no
division is not to be commended — there are already only too
many instances of it.

A minute or two and a fallen pine tree appears lying'
in a vast mass of green confusion across the rocks a little
above us. "Just the place!" I mutter, and scramble
towards it with gun ready this time, and then pause about
fifteen yards off. A moment of silence succeeds, and the dog-
is on the point of being sent in, when a mighty flutter takes
place spontaneously, and a brown mass <lp quits " 011 the far-
side, but keeps the tangle of branches so cleverly between us
that I am quite unable to get a fair sight, and is away
through the wood in a second. There is no time for the
sorrowful reflections which might else have followed, for
another prodigious disturbance occurs among the partially
withered branches, and amidst a cloiid of disturbed snow the

GROUSE. 135

cock of the woods himself rises boldly from the midst of his
harem, shooting up for the tree tops above with a speed and
ease wonderful in such a bird. It is a fair chance. I follow
his flight for a moment, and then with a crack the report
resounds through the wood, followed after a moment by a
heavy rush from above, and a thump on the ground. We
rush up, and there lies the gigantic capercailzie in his final
struggles on the beaten snow, which he is tinging with a
crimson stain. I feel reasonably proud, as he is in the best of
condition, and will make a display when he is got home.
But that is a somewhat arduous task. He is about the size
of a medium fat turkey, much too big for the game-bag ; so
his feet are tied together, and he is slung behind, where he
rides comfortably enough for the time being.

Then on again to pick up another, if possible. But now,
the ice having been broken, the dog is sent a-hunting for
whatever he may find, and I am all ready for the next
chance, which comes pretty soon in the form of a nimble
mountain rabbit springing from a shelter of fir branch on
the ground, and making off up hill closely followed by that
graceless dog of mine.

However, it distances him in a yard or two, getting out
of sight for a moment among the boulders, appears again
higher up the hillside, where a sharp shot stops it all of a
sudden ; its four-footed pursuer running in and proceeding to
mumble it in a way that earns him a well-deserved reproof.
After all the sound of a gun is out of place in these soli-
tudes. The report, shut in by the close barriers on either
side, echoes and re-echoes in a startling manner on every
hand. Were the heavy sound which desecrates the hillside
to call forth some monstrous shape or old world vision, one
would hardly be surprised, so ancient and solemn is this
abode of silence, with the long tawny lichens hanging in
ghostly lacework from the warped and stunted firs and
shattered rocks, rolled down from above, like disjointed
masonry, taking strange shapes of turrets and witches' caves

136 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

under the thick canopy of flat branches and dead bracken.
Here it is said, indeed, there does actually dwell a harpy of
evil form, whose chosen home is this stretch of gloomy
wilderness, and some imaginative bard has turned, for the
benefit of wonder-loving southern tourists, a distich, whose
intention is better than its metre —

" If the fiend ye offend of the knock of Balmy le,
Your life shall you live but a very short while."

Many a time I have hunted in the territories of this being ;
watched a sunny vale below from the summit of his chance-
piled castles ; lopped branches from his oldest trees ; lit fires
in his deepest caverns, and inquisitively penetrated his
densest tangles ! In fine weather, when the golden sunlight
is speckling the floor of pine needles with patches of shifting
colour, the tall foxgloves rocking in the gentle currents of
air sighing on the tree tops and loaded with the faint aroma
of sweet-scented resin, while the soft notes of the shy wood-
lark or ever active goldencrest have been the only sounds to
break the stillness, the pursuit has been one of endless
amusement. But it is another thing hunting a titular
family demon towards the close of a short winter day, when
every unseen rivulet chafes angrily in its bed loaded with
blood-red peat water, and the firs lash about their rough
arms, tossing them up to the cold rising wind, and creaking
above and below like the scantlings of a ship in a cross
sea. At such times the curlews, bound southwards, sweep
overhead with unearthly cries, and the mist comes down
deep and sombre, hanging about among the rocks whose
weird shapes are more than ever fantastic through its dim
folds. If you have ever listened in a shepherd's cot to wild
highland tales of superstition ; if you have ever had even a
suspicion of a belief in ghosts, this is the time that you will,
in spite of your best efforts to put such fancies behind you,
think of everything gruesome you can remember.

Indeed, these forests of the Scotch highlands are not to
be " sneezed at" for that half of the year, when not one low-

GROUSE. 137

lander in fifty, of those who shoot through the short glory of
a Scottish autumn, knows anything of them.

One such sportsman said to me once, after we had
•emerged from a short cut down a belt of forest on the edge
of steep corries, where the mist was lying pretty thick, and
the rain passing in squalls over the tree tops, that he had
never seen such an "infernal region in his life ; and as for
banshees, why, it is just the most promising cover you could
want." I was bound to confess I had never come across
anything more weird than this locality, in many wild
expeditions in both hemispheres.

The highland rabbits like the hillsides; the broken
ground gives them great protection from beasts and birds
of prey, and they do but little digging — " the conies are but
a feeble folk, yet they build their burrows in the rocks"
applies here very well. Yet, even with this protection close
At hand, they suffer occasionally from the talons of the free-
booter. On one occasion I found on a hollow ledge of stone,
protected from the wind and rain by an overhanging cornice,
as many as five full-grown rabbits, every one with its back
broken and both eyes pecked out, but otherwise untorn or
uninjured, the work probably of a young and over-fed eagle,
for one had been seen sweeping about the neighbourhood a
few days before. The royal bird is clearly an epicure, or
mighty fond of hunting ! Owls, too, play havoc with the
young ones, stealing along in the twilight and picking them
off the hillocks where they congregate, with the utmost
speed and certainty. For this reason, as for many others,
the bird should be protected by farmers, not only in the
north but in the south.

Snap shots were now the order of the day, and very
pretty shooting it was too, turning the bunnies up from
their warm shelters under piles of withered fern fronds, and
taking them " on the hop " as they dodged between their
abundant covers.

Twenty minutes of this sort of thing satisfied me for the

138 . BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

clay, and it was a relief to drag a bunch of mountain
bunnies into the nearest ride, where they were strung up by
their heels along with the capercailzie on a strong branch,
there to await a keeper's boy sent to fetch them home, and
not forgetting a scrap of paper torn from a note-book and
fixed conspicuously to them for the double purpose of mark-
ing their whereabouts and scaring away any prowling lynx-
eyed corbie- crows, who like nothing better than a share of
another man's meat taken on the sly.

Eschewing f ur, the next addition to the bag was a braco
of wood pigeon returning to roost, whose shadows gliding
across the snow at a spot where the ground was bare thus
betrayed their approach, one falling to the first shot, and the
other of these birds, who would seem to keep constantly in
pairs all the year, as she came wheeling round to see what
had happened to the other, sharing a like fate. The wood
pigeon is one of the loosest-feathered birds existing. The
spot where they fall is almost invariably marked by a perfect
litter of cast plumage, and no other bird get so draggled and
spoiled in the republic of the game bag as they.

Lower dowrn, where a mountain torrent spread itself out
over a land delta of its own making, in a number of thin
streams, a woodcock got up and sped down the glade with
hawk-like speed. This was too pretty a trophy to be lostr
and so a charge of No. 6 at forty yards brought the russet
plumage to the ground. Another was shot some way further
along the slope; but though these two had roused my
enthusiasm, and more likely ground was beaten under the lea
of the wood, no more were put up, and being now on the low
ground again, with the firs towering tier upon tier overhead,
I came to the conclusion that the capercailzie should have a
rest for the present, though no brilliant score had been made
no doubt, and turned my steps homewards. Just at the edge
of the plantations fringing the roadway leading to the house,
a cock pheasant strutted out of a ditch, and finding himself
in unpleasant proximity to the dog, took a short run, a

GEOUSE.

couple of hops, and then launched himself into the air with
his tail streaming gallantly behind him. Thirty yards' law
given him, and he gets a dose of "leaden hail" that brings
this brilliant game down to the snow, and this is the last shot
of the day.

The guests are out sleighing, but when they return to
lunch there is a row of birds waiting their criticism on the
grass by the porch, two capercailzie, a cock and a hen, the
latter shot on the way home, nine rabbits in their thick grey
winter fur, a handsome mallard, two wood pigeons, ditto
woodcock, and last but not least the pheasant, which the
keeper's boy strokes " gingerly " from its glossy green-head
to the tip of its long unruffled tail, before he places it at the
end of the line. Such is the sort of mixed bag it is possible
to make when the snow covers the Perthshire ranges, and
regular sport on the heather or stubble is impracticable.

THE LAST OF THE GROUSE.

" Can you drive over here for a final harrying of the
birds to-morrow, before we go south ? " wrote the son of a
neighbouring laird a short time ago, and knowing the invita-
tion would be backed by pleasant company and at least fair
sport, and that of the kind which, late in the season, is
practised on most estates, I most willingly sent back an
acceptance.

Looking out the following morning the prospect was
wintry enough. All the higher spurs of the ragged neigh-
bouring mountains lay shrouded in snow, where a few hours
before they had been green and fertile. Truly the hand of
winter was coming down upon the land, and in a little time
even the few still occupied shooting lodges would be bare
and empty of their summer migrants. But we judge things
as they affect ourselves, and the snow would make little
difference to-day, since it was confined to the higher ranges^

140 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

while our working ground for the time would be on com-
paratively low-lying moorland.

Breakfast over, myself and J climbed into the waiting

dog-cart, in which guns with cartridges quantum suf. were
ready stowed away, and tucking in the comfortable rugs, for
an autumn morning in the Highlands before the sun is well

over the hill-tops is none too warm, J picked up the

ribbons, nicked the sleek-coated chestnut, and away we went
down the drive, our cigars aglow, and minds full of pleasant
anticipations.

Half an hour's sharp trotting brought us to the beginning
of the long avenue which led to our entertainer's noble man-
sion. On arriving we had a hearty Highland welcome
from him and his assembled guests ; but the hour being
already somewhat late, the necessary introductions were
hurried over, and then we were soon following the head
keeper down a winding path into the valley below the
house.

The morning was lovely, cold, and clear as could be
wished, while our " fighting line," winding through a deep
forest of firs, was really a picturesque sight. First went the
keeper in his national dress, a man of strength and stature,
and an awe to all the poachers far or near; then our host,

P , discussing the merits of a new trout fly with an Assam

tea planter, R , whose gun, carried over his shoulder, had

recently been dealing out death and destruction to snipe
011 the plains of Northern India. On their heels came our
host's son talking to " Uncle P.," as he called that relative of
his, and two cousins, both in Athole tartans. These, myself,

J , and one other young laird made up the party. We

wound down the narrow path in single file, the occasional
gleams of sunshine breaking into the cool shade of the forest
to glitter 011 our gun barrels. We chatted and laughed
until, having dipped into a lovely glen, thick with amber
fern and silver birches, we crossed a rocky torrent bed,
scaled the opposite bank, and soon found ourselves by a

GROUSE. 141

thatched cottage, where keepers with numerous dogs in lash
awaited oar arrival.

Now chaff and fun had to be given up, for we were about
to begin the serious business of the day, and our host, an
unwavering enthusiast, led us out of the wood, across a
patch of rocky ground, through a gap in a stone wall, and
there we were on the breezy hillside, knee deep in heather,
breathing such nectar as dwellers in towns never dream of,
with in front a limitless expanse of mountain and moorland
undisturbed as far as the eye could see by a trace of civiliza-
tion. " Can this mighty, uninhabited expanse be in the over-
crowded British Isles ? " I wondered ; but my host " sniffed
the scent of battle afar off," and stopped all musing by an
imperative " Come along ! "

Our first position was behind a broken-down stone wall,
where the keeper dropped us some seventy-five yards apart,
and with our faces all to the eastward whence the birds
were to be driven up. This turned out to be but a poor sort
of cover, for though the wall in front of each shooter had
been built up to serve him the better, yet to be out of sight
it was necessary to sit or crouch down, either of which
positions are fatal to good, rapid shooting. The best screen
in driving game is always found to be one that comes up to
the neck of the shooter when standing, thus allowing him
to turn rapidly and give him a clear shot in every direc-
tion. We occupied our " marks," such as they were, and
making ourselves comfortable awaited in silence the arrival
of the first bird, amusing ourselves meanwhile with our
delightful surroundings — numberless mountains fringing in
an amphitheatre of purple moor, all rugged and grand, some
just tipped with snow at the highest points, and gleaming
silver where the sun lay upon them, and purple in the
shadows of the ravines. The wind from these snow-fields,
now that we had no trees to shelter us, was as cool and
fresh as it could be, sweeping over the wide expanse of
moors, and bringing to our ears the far away bleat of mown-

H2 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

tain, sheep, or the melancholy whistle of a plover, whose
sharp eyes already perceived the advancing beaters. But the
sun was warm overhead, and our pipes smoked fragrantly,
so we waited with contentment for the battle to commence.
Presently a distant shout comes down to us, and the guns
all down the line are to be seen directly on the qui vive;
•cartridges are hastily arranged, caps securely " crammed "
down on their wearers' heads, and all eyes are directed over
the wall to get a wider view of the plain in front ; and soon
the grouse come in sight on the far left of the line, giving
the last man one chance, and his gun immediately breaks
the silence of the hills, the white puff of smoke sailing away
over the heather to leeward. Then some blackgame go over
to the right under a regular fusilade from the batteries down
there, and it becomes obvious that though we cannot see them,
yet the beaters are all among the birds down the hill slope.

Soon my turn comes, and I see R making signs to me

under cover of his ambush and taking a peep at the moor in
front ; there is a large covey coming " dead " for my stand.
It is always an exciting moment, even to those who think
little of driving as a legitimate sport. The birds appeared
skimming lightly over the tops of the heather, seeming
almost stationary for some time though travelling at a great
pace, and little is to be seen of them but the head and
narrow edges of the outstretched wings. Another second
or two and they are within forty yards, and as my gun
speaks the foremost bird drops, the others going at such
a pace as on such near acquaintance as we are now seems
terrific, rise to clear the wall, passing overhead like meteors,
in another second are retreating over the heather behind

the line. I fired again, K, fired, my brother fired, his bird

coming down within a few feet of the stand occupied by
me ; and to our astonishment, when we thought it was all
over, " Uncle P.," far away down the line, also sent a couple
of charges of shot up in our direction, but without bagging
either men or grouse.

GROUSE. 143

We get a few more shots, and then the beaters arrive, the
retrievers are unslipped, the slain picked up, after which we
walk in line over some rough ground, where the dogs find
another bird or two and put up a lowland hare which our
host stops in workmaiily style.

At the next broken-down dyke we disperse again to our
posts, spending the interval, while the beaters walk round
the moor, in adding to the screens as our fancy suggests,
*ind making our seats comfortable in the manner set by our
luxurious friend the Assam planter, whose first care at every
stand is a springy nest of heather, on which he reclines in
bliss until the birds arrive. Again the same sort of process
is gone through, and a rather long wait well rewarded by
a rush of grouse, mixed with small bodies of blackgame,
hares, and squadrons of shrieking plovers, when the beaters
get within feel of the enemy.

The cannonading is soon brisk up and down the line —
the two young gentlemen in tartans getting a little " off their
heads " with excitement, and showing themselves freely (a
great mistake in grouse driving), sweep the neighbourhood
with their well-served guns, while " Uncle P.," who, by a
judicious and philanthropical foresight of the head keeper, is
always their companion, far away down on the left, also
gets a "wee bit daft," burning much powder with great
satisfaction to himself but little effect on the bag. We up
in the centre, however, behave ourselves with decorum, never
firing at any birds but our own, and carefully making a
mental note of where such of them as we may bring down
will be found when the beaters come up. I have heard of
this latter matter being settled in a very cut-and-dried
manner with the help of a pencil and sheet of cardboard,
the latter being divided by lines into quarters, with a circle
where the divisions meet in the centre to represent the stand ;
the shooter carries a supply about with him, and, dividing
his neighbourhood at every drive into imaginary portions,
marks with the pencil as nearly as he can the vicinity of

144 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

every bird, as he brings ifc down, on the sheet of paper — a
cross for dead birds and a dot for probable runners, this
record being handed over to the keepers when they come
up ; an arrangement, I fear, which though it may read well
enough, would need a shooter as many-minded as Csesar to
carry out in the heat of the fight. By the time the sun high
up in the sky points to a little past midday, being all more
than ready for lunch, we seek, a sheltered nook, cut deep
through the moor by the ceaseless labours of a sparkling
streamlet, where, on a broad, sunny rock well out of the
wind, we find luncheon spread and our host's charming
daughter in the neatest and most reasonable of costumes
ready to welcome us, while the big mastiff at her side makes
hill and valley echo to his sonorous baying until a sign from
his mistress's hand informs him we are lawful intruders,
when he forthwith subsides into the heather.

It is by no means the worst part of the day ; the provender
is ample and varied, cold grouse pies, flanked by such salads-
as must surely have grown in celestial kitchen gardens,
a sirloin of the finest stalled beef, pastry of fairy light-
ness, unimpeachable drink that, when accepted in foaming
tankards from the fair fingers of our fascinating Hebe,
becomes quite ambrosial. We linger, too, over the choice
cheroots which our host passes round after the meal ; thus
careless of time until the edges of the purple shadows creep-
ing up the opposite hillside warn us that autumn days are
all too short for much idleness, so we see the " mem sahib 'r
.to her pony carriage in the neighbouring lane and then are
soon hard at work once more.

The first wait afternoon is a long one, the keepers and
beaters seeming to have lunched as well as we have and to
be rather lazy ; however, we are contented and sit calmly in
our shelters, our guns across our knees and the position of
each man down the long line of grey wall marked by a tiny
curl of tobacco smoke ascending in the still air, for the
morning breeze had died out as it often does in the latter

G BOUSE. 145

part of a Highland day, and all the wide, lovely landscape
before us simmering in the golden glow of the quickly
sinking sun.

But after twenty minutes or so there comes a shout
mellowed by distance echoing over the corrie, and soon a
devoted band of little brown birds are on the wing coming
along all in a bunch. They come nearer, and are just within
long range, the cock bird leading and the rest "twinkling "
over the heather behind him, when the report of the gun of
some impetuous individual, whom we have no time to see,
disturbs the stillness, and as the covey breaks up to right
and left we all get our chances, thinning their numbers
nntil they are out of shot behind us.

Other drives follow, bringing up the bag to a very respect-
able total, considering the lateness of the season, but so much
alike in the details of the slaughter of the unsuspicious little
brown birds " butchered to make a Roman holiday," that
it would be but tedious to narrate them all ; and then we
have finished the final beat and troop homeward as the sun
sets, not quite so noisy as in the morning, but well pleased
with the day's shooting. Nor are our consciences, whatever
the tender-hearted may suppose, overburdened with the
manner of our sport, for we feel that at this time of year we
could not have got near the birds in any other way ; and
finally, as our host remarks with a sigh, handing his gun to
the keeper, " It is the last bustling they will get until next
August."

146 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

CHAPTER VI.

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS.

IT is a mistake to think Hodge hates game and game pre-
serving ! Such hatred is done for him by those political hot
gospellers whose forum is the poacher's tap and larceny
their chief creed. The agricultural labourer himself rarely
comes within touch of the birds whose names head this
chapter. They do his allotment plot no harm, they excite
none of that savage envy which the village charlatan would
fain propagate in rising under his feet on stubble or gorse.
Occasionally he gets a day's pay for a light day's work as a
beater to some shooting party, but otherwise his interest
is all metaphysical and remote. When his hot gospeller
mounts the rostrum, Hodge listens open-mouthed to the new
science of spoliation, and in his inner Heart wonders so neat
a gentleman can lie so eloquently as it is palpable his tutor
does.

The average countryman knows, in fact, it would not
swell his score at the village post-office, to wipe out game
from the land. His interest is linked with that of the
farmer, and the latter, as his spokesmen freely acknowledged
before the Game Law Committee, is advantaged greatly by
the popularity with the money- spending classes, which game
brings to our counties.

The rustic could never look upon game as a food supply,
— our shires would not stand his demand for three years if
coverts and stubble were thrown open ; — the pleasant freedom

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 147

of trespass and opportunities of collecting faggots of other
people's wood, or gathering mushrooms or hazel-nuts, are
trivial gains to compare with what he would lose.

As for the farmer, what could he gain by doing away
with shooting. Ground game is in his own hands (and little
good it has done him !) and for every peck of wheat pheasants
take along the wood-sides it is the fashion now to over-
compensate the grower. Is it possible he does not gene-
rally appreciate those magic dates, September 1st, August
12th (if he is a dales' man), and October 1st, and perceive
the economic value and boon of a fashion and a health-
giving pastime which calls back peer and commoner from
Norwegian trout streams, from the soft seductions of yachting
in southern seas, and from every quarter of the globe to
consume his beef and mutton, to buy horses, and to send up
the price of his seed and grass ! In Ireland the want of
resident landlords (they shoot the few they have) is half the
trouble of the land, and in England matters will be even
worse when the gentry have been brought to spend half the
year in town and the other half at Monte Carlo or the
Riviera.

Sydney Smith often thundered against the game laws
in the press, and that amiable bigot, George Grote, thought
he might rise to notoriety in the parliament of our grand-
fathers by adopting a like line. Since then this bone of
contention has been well wittled ; yet there are some pariahs
in politics still intent on it !

As far as I can see, their aim and object is to do away
with pheasants and partridges, for, infatuated as they are,
I can hardly think them so misguided as to suppose these
birds would remain amongst our fauna half a dozen years
as fera naturae. And were the obnoxious laws abolished
to-morrow, sterner enactments against trespass would be
essential, as pointed out in Mill's " Essay on Government."
As an example of the aims of this new school of thought,
it may be mentioned that under the Ground Game Act of

148 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

1880, the occupier of moorlands and unenclosed lands can
only kill ground game between December llth and March
31st. Yet these poaching politicians propose to enact that
" the tenant of a hill farm " may shoot, or authorize his sons,
friends, and, if he chooses, every poacher in the neighbour-
hood to shoot, not only ground game but also everything
that flies, on every week day throughout the year. A corre-
spondent points out that the tenant in question will be able,
if Mr. Menzies has his way, to sally forth, accompanied by
his myrmidons, and by a lot of curs with keen noses, but
under no control. A hare, or perhaps a bird of any kind,
springs up. Away go the yelping pack in pursuit. " Con-
ceive," says the correspondent, "this going on almost daily
when the grouse are on their nests, or when the young are
just out of the shell, and continuing steadily until the 12th
of August, and so on throughout the season." The tenant
is also to be permitted to shoot grouse and blackgame upon
his stubbles. Who can doubt that in many cases, tenants
will spread " stooks " of possibly worthless grain to attract
birds from the neighbouring moors ?

Again, though perhaps a little foreign to the subject,
I must quote the sensible and pointed words of a public
writer who, in view of this radical propaganda, says, " Recent
measures proposed for Scotland are mild, however, compared
with that which some would enforce in this hapless country.
In the ' Ground Game Act (1880) Amendment Bill,' pro-
posed by the four English members, ' any owner endeavour-
ing to induce an occupier to forbear to exercise the right to
kill ground game is liable to a penalty not exceeding one
hundred pounds nor less than twenty pounds.' By this
clause all contracts about game between a landlord and his
tenants are rendered illegal. By another clause, ' No person
shall kill or take a hare between March 1st and June 1st in
any year.' This provision chiefly affects spring coursing,
and we must leave the managers of Kempton Park, Plympton,
and Gosforth Park meetings to digest it as they best may.

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 149

Without following these proposed measures further into
detail, and pointing out that their inevitable effect will be
to clog game preservation in England and Scotland with
such restrictions as ultimately to lead to its total abolition,
we would fain address one question to these, doubtless, well-
meaning Don Quixotes. Do they suppose that the British
isles contain all the ground available for game which exists
upon earth ? In the face of such legislation as has lately
been passed, and, still more, of that which seems to be in
contemplation, what inducement can there be for men of
wealth to retain their existing properties, or to acquire new
estates in this country ? ' The world is all before them
where to choose their place of rest ; ' and either upon the
North American or the Australian Continent, or even in
many parts of Europe, they can easily pick up vast domains
'for a song,' where game of all kinds swarms, where the
climate is preferable to our own, where taxes are low, and
where Puritan legislation will never disturb them. Eliminate
from England and Scotland their resident country gentry,
and what will there be left ? "

But though I feel strongly that game ought no more
to be done away with than soles and flat fish round our
coasts, or a fancier's rabbits in his back yard, yet no one can
recognize more keenly than that if pheasants have a right
to live, so have peasants. Because I feel strongly the
Charybdis of game destruction, as known in Switzerland,
is impolitic and foolish, yet on the other hand, the Scylla of
preservation, as illustrated in Persian game laws, is equally
unpleasant. The happy mean is what must be aimed at
in such matters, and this can only be discovered by reason-
able and neighbourly discussion.

I have felt the strongest indignation at meeting notice-
boards round highland glens declaring the free heather the
private privilege of an un appreciative landlord, and have
sent to perdition more than once the " owners " of delightful
trout streams who have pretended bastard rights to close

150 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

them against every other of her Majesty's lieges. I can
quite understand, moreover, that in the south a sylvan Eden
behind a well-spiked, six-foot oak fence can and does stir
the radical gall and germinate a hatred of those costly " wild
fowl " for whom the demise is kept so quiet. Yet these
gentlemen should know general confiscation is a poor corner-
stone for the erection of a temple to freedom. Were reflec-
tion in their line, I would refer them to the epitome of
foreign game laws at the end of this volume, wherein it will
be seen that in all countries, even those happy, blameless,
and Arcadian republics of France and Switzerland, game is
preserved with more or less rigour.

But reason is not in their line, so perhaps the best thing
we can do is to educate the misguided rustic, or the thick-
headed voter who has listened to these too reckless ones,
until with Queen Titania, they exclaim —

" Ha ! what madness has possessed me !
I dreamt I was enamoured of an ass ! "

Meanwhile the sportsman's birds are being more scientifi-
cally reared, and more carefully tended year by year. There
is no perceptible thinness in the rows of pheasants or other
game which fill our poulterer's shops during the season, and
if prices remain high, it only indicates the constancy of the
demand.

Some remarkable bags were made during 1885. At
Elveden, the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh's, on the borders
of Norfolk and Suffolk, 3258 brace of partridges in fifteen
days. On Lord Walsingham's estate of Merton, bags
averaging 200 brace a day were made at the beginning of
the season. On this same estate 2000 wild-bred pheasants
have been killed in a season, and this after innumerable
nests in the open had been despoiled of their eggs. In fact,
Norfolk and Suffolk, with their great game estates of Euston,
Merton, Biddlesworth, Buckingham, and Wretham, are the
best and most prolific game counties in the world. The

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 151

Maharajah's estate is, as I write, in the market ; and Dhuleep
Singh himself told me, in course of conversation before he
left for abroad, how much he felt the parting with this
admirably managed domain where he has shown the ultima
thulce of scientific rearing, and beaten all records in the
number of game brought to bag in a day or in a season.
When I laughingly asked him if he was going to cultivate
the chickor or preserve sand grouse in Runjeet Singh's
fertile plains, he shook his head despondingly, and suggested
the near future might see a sterner sport on the Indian
frontier.

Here at home there is no break in the value or sports-
manly estimation of shooting and shootings. As far as the
lesser species is concerned, if they escape politicians, I
cannot see why they should not multiply and nourish greatly.
Our last agricultural returns show that the kingdom is
slowly but surely turning to a grass and orchard country,
and glebe and meadow in maugre of a few sceptics is by
no means adverse to the russet birds. Thus one sportsman
writes — " I must take exception to the idea that a grass
country, no matter how well preserved, rarely affords good
partridge shooting. Some of the best partridge shooting
I had some time ago was over a large tract of grazing land.
I found it well stocked with birds, and, being under an
impression that the grain of a tillage farm was necessary
to their subsistence, I opened the crops of the birds, which
were very fat, and found nothing but grass seeds in them.
The long grass and ditches and briar-covered dykes afford
them plenty of shelter."

I can endorse this, as probably many other sportsmen
can, having brought down partridges as thick and heavy on
the grassy Hampshire downs as any that ever came from
Essex flats or Suffolk turnip-fields. Not only is -wheat not
absolutely necessary for their constitution, but where cereals
will ripen in the Highlands partridges may be established ;
and any laird who would try should get a few sittings of

152 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

eggs next spring, hatch them out, and rear them with ban-
tams, taking care to keep the broods well apart as they grow
up, to prevent them from packing, for if they do so they
often, when disturbed, take uncommon long nights, and on
that account they may leave his grounds altogether. Where
cultivation at a considerable altitude in former times has
been going on, but where there are now only a few green
patches of grass land, the rest all heather and bracken — a
few broods of partridges are often still to be found. They
are usually smaller in size than their more favoured brethren
in the low grounds, and their plumage is considerably darker;
their flesh is as high-flavoured almost as grouse to the palate,
no doubt from the food they subsist upon. I have shot them
in winter with their crops full of heather.

I do not believe, with Mr. Greener, that there is more
than one species of English partridge in England ; with a
bird varying so much in location and food, great varieties
of plumage and build may be expected. The French species,
one of our most beautifully plumaged birds, and weighing
sometimes as much as 1 Ib. 6 oz., here and there proves an
enemy to the home birds, much to the resentment of shooting
lessees and the spoiling of dogs, as the bird is an obdurate
runner, and will, unless headed, slip from field to field with-
out rising to " tempt the hazard of the die."

The naturalist sympathizes, and sees no more reason why
a "red leg" should not run under such circumstances than
an Irish landlord in like case ; but then the friendship of the
naturalist is indiscriminate, and as he cannot explain the
diffusion of species he would like to see them still more
diffused. Thus he is much in favour of that pleasant sub-
ject, acclimatization, which, however, is too wide and curious
to be seriously entered upon here. A few erratic attempts,
it is true, to enrich our home fauna with game birds likely
to vary our shootings without enlisting the hostility of
farmers have been made, but not, we think, with much
judgment. Examples of what might be done are obvious,

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS.^ 153

The brown partridge is no doubt indigenous, but the pheasant
certainly is not. Echard thinks it was brought into the
kingdom during the reign of Edward I., though perhaps
much earlier. Then if quail have been with us since British
times, the French partridge is new, and though ptarmigan
and grouse are as old as their strongholds the hills, the noble
capercailzie has been successfully restored to Scotch forest
from which sixty years ago he had died; out.

When Ireland returns again within the confines of civiliza-
tion, her willow and spruce wastes certainly ought to be
stocked with blackgame, which will flourish on ground where
grouse would starve. In the south of England we have hun-r
dreds of thousands of acres of barren heath and bog myrtle,
upon which the few blackgame, formerly to be foiyid, are
nearly extinct. We are most anxious to see some bird worth
powder and shot occupying these wastes. "I have been long
anxious to see the introduction attempted of the Scandinavian
species," says a correspondent. "From what I hear, not
having visited Norway myself, I believe that with a little co-
operation there might be a fair chance of acclimatizing these
species of grouse in Hants and Dorset if attempted simul-
taneously on the crown lands and by some of the chief landed
proprietors." Knowing Norway myself fairly well, I should
doubt if any species, accustomed there to its luxuriant
pastures and great feeding ranges, would settle down in
necessarily circumscribed English barrens, though the ex-
periment might conveniently be tried.

American prairie grouse for our wild pastures have been
much talked of without practical result. Mr. G. H. Bates,
in the Field, seems to be a strong partisan of this species.

"PRAIRIE CHICKENS FOR ENGLAND.
" SIR,

" Yesterday a friend and myself trapped, alive,
twenty lone prairie chickens. I have just eaten a hearty

154: BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

dinner of the same, and while doing so it occurred to me
that ' John Bull ' could, if he chose, soon have of his own
raising hundreds of thousands of these useful birds to shoot
at and to eat. There are thousands of square miles in Great
Britain where these birds would do well; in fact, I believe
that they would multiply much faster either in England,
Ireland, or Scotland than they do here. They are very
hardy, and not at all destructive to field crops. The hens
commence laying about the middle of April, hatching in
June. They produce at each sitting from twelve to thirty
young; I believe I have seen a greater number than this
in one covey. The average weight of prairie chicken is
about 5 lb., with a slight increase in the male. From now
until April they can be secured alive in traps in great num-
bers, and I believe that they can be delivered alive and in
good condition in any part of Great Britain at a cost not
exceeding 10s. each. Then, why not have these 'Yankee
chickens ' of the West, in countless numbers on the downs,
on the moorlands, and in the evergreen forests of Merry Old
England ? If twenty or more gentlemen, owning estates in
different parts of England, and an equal number owning
estates in Ireland and Scotland, would subscribe for two
thousand or three thousand of these chickens, to be divided
equally among them, they would confer a great benefit on
the people of Great Britain, for their action would in time
add an important element of supply to the tables of both
rich and poor. Two thousand or more birds can be caged
and sent in one lot, and, by having a proper person in charge
of them, very few of them would die during the passage
from the West to England.

" Import two thousand live and healthy prairie chickens
into England, Ireland, and Scotland; let them loose in
grounds 'favourable to their existence, and they will produce
more of their kind in seven years than there are at present
inhabitants of Great Britain. Should any person reading
this desire any information that I can give, or should any

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 155

person desire to experiment by importing prairie chickens
into England, I will do all in my power to aid him.

"(Sergeant) G. H. BATES."

"Saybrook, Maclean County, Illinois, U.S.A., Dec. 13, 1883."

But some of our own authorities decry the bird as of
ignoble, skulking habits. Mr. Harry Greenwood says one
could hardly wish for more delightful or better shooting than
the Virginian quail affords. He flies like a rocket, and in the
superb autumn days of America, when he is full grown and
strong, and vigorous on the wing, it requires both a true eye
and a rapid hand to cut him down.

Other birds have been recommended, nor can there be
any reasonable doubt that if the opportunities were forth-
coming we might find amongst sand grouse, the lesser game
of the Mediterranean shores, or even the pheasant-haunted
rhododendron thickets of the Himalaya, some birds that
would thrive and multiply amongst our coppices and downs.
Meantime we have enough game at hand to fulfil every
reasonable need. The farmers, who must ever have much
of the sportsman's enjoyment within their control, are for
the most part wisely content to let things remain as they
stand ; and if the veto of ignorant politicians receives the
contempt it deserves, we may still for many years hear the
crow of the cock pheasant as he comes out to feed " in
the dewing," and notice how tenderly the partridge cherishes
his lavender and cinnamon bride, how faithful and gallant
he is to her and to his school of dainty striped chicks who
people the corn and clover lands, and nestle under that
" field of the cloth of gold " which means the yellow harvest
of fertile England is ripe once more.

OCTOBEE BY COVERT AND HEDGES.

From heather to stubble, and then from corn lands to
oak coppices, and, later on, the holly thickets for woodcock,

156 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

willow-fringed brooks and reedy margined estuaries for ducks
and winter wild fowl, is about the sequence in which hillside
and cover alternately interest the sportsman. In autumn
he has done with Perth and Rosshire, or he has very nearly
done with them. There is a thin skin of snow, perhaps, 011
the caps of the highest peaks around his moorland lodge, and
a suggestive hoar frost or two has touched the bells of the
heather, making the bracken undergrowth of the birch and
spruce thickets, beloved of the rabbits, glow in amber and
red brown.

Whipping for trout he finds, in an open boat, with a
gillie to row and take all the warmth-giving exercise, has
become but a chilly pleasure ; so the trout have a holiday, at
least in the very far north, while grouse and blackgame can
exchange their opinion^ upon the last shooting season with-
out fear of much further interruption.

As for the stubbles, some of the most enjoyable sport on
them is yet to come in favoured lo-calities. We know the
midland turnips have been assiduously stumped by the
orthodox squadron of shooters in line with their beaters and
dogs, and Suffolk has driven its broods hither and thither
over the hedges, rich in their harvest of scarlet berries,
behind which the latter-day sportsmen are content to stand
and enfilade the coveys as they rush by ; but in spite of all
this, there is plenty of pretty shooting still left on the frosty
mornings of early winter, when the sun gets up behind the
bare ash thickets, a heavy red ball of fire, the stubble is
brittle as glass underfoot, and the fieldfares are quarrelling
noisily over the ivy berries and haws. Then, with a clever
setter, as the day warms, we may try the woodsides and the
low-lying rushy meadows for partridges with every prospect
of success.

But October and November are properly the pheasant
shooter's months. Theoretically, no doubt, the season begins
on October 1st, but the truth is the mild autumnal rains
with which September makes fresh and tillable the summer-

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 157

scorched ground, give a new lease of life to vegetation, and
thus the woodlands are often as thick when the close time
ends as they were in "leafy June." Generally it was so,
and, as a consequence, though we may go round the outly-
ing gorses, the main body of birds find security and a strong-
hold in the coverts, until the verge of November. By this
time, if the game-room is not full it ought to be. Such, at
least, was the opinion of a friend of ours the other day when
he wrote and begged we would come over for a preliminary
" dusting " of the pheasant, and lend our assistance in the
replenishing of his larder, upon which hospitality and
generosity made constant calls ; and, though we knew the
sort of shooting — to-morrow would not be our idea of perfect
sport — we went.

Reasonably early next morning, our host, L , J ,

and myself, are seated at a substantial breakfast in the
dining hall of the house, laying in a foundation for the day's
work. But when the meal is over, and we have betaken
ourselves to the smoking-room for a quiet pipe, we stand,
hands in pockets, looking out of the windows, while our
courage sinks at sight of a steady November downpour
almost hiding the landscape. Yet the game room requires

replenishing for an approaching festival. As J remarks,

it is not the rain we mind so much, but will the birds rise
or the beaters work properly in such weather ? However,
presently our host throws away the stump of his cigar with
an impatient ejaculation, asking whether we are to stand
watching all day for a bit of blue sky, which obviously is
not coming, or if we will brave the elements. We vote for
a move at once, and while donning our waterproofs, the
shooting trap comes round to the door with a pair of strong

bays in the traces. L takes the reins, I mount beside

him, while J • and the footman scramble in behind, with

the guns under their feet.

Fortune is a fickle jade, it has been somewhat disrespect-
fully observed, and no sooner are we off than a glint of

158 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

brightness comes over the sky — the clouds tear apart in the
southward, and soon sun and shower are coursing alternately
over the meadows, beautiful in their mellow browns and
greens. Away we rattle through the park, deerstalking caps
drawn down, and collars turned up to our ears, the horses
fresh and frolicsome, dancing and tossing their heads, their
bits rattling, and bright gold trappings jingling gaily as we
fly down the smooth gravel roadway ; through the " chase "
towards the first of the woods to be beaten. It is not far,
and in twenty minutes we turn up a shady lane, ducking our
heads occasionally to avoid the acorn-loaded boughs of the
thick hedge-row oaks, and arrive on the outskirts of a wide
tract of undulating woodland, broken into by patches of
cultivated ground. We take our guns, order the luncheon
cart to meet us at midday, and join the party of beaters
coming down a " drive '* in tail of the head keeper. The
latter is despondent but alert. He touches his hat in obvious
pleasure to see us out, but can give us only small hope of
sport. It is raining again now, and we have the additional
discomfort of drip from the trees ; but we pull down our caps,
and securing every button of our waterproofs, determine to
face our luck. The first stands are in a disused and moss-
grown roadway, the beaters swinging round and beating
back to us through a long strip of gorse, fern, and scattered
beech bushes. Tap, tap, go the sticks on the wet shrubs,
doubtless bringing down upon the luckless beaters, showers
of moisture at every blow, while we, hardly better off, keep
running a finger along the midribs of our guns, to free them
from big drops which continually accumulate there. Little
stirs for a time save a blackbird or two, and we stamp about
somewhat impatiently, for we are cold and benumbed about
the hands ; yet we know there are pheasants and rabbits
afoot, for we hear an occasional shout, with renewed tree-
tapping, as the men keep the quarry from breaking back.
Slowly the game is driven down to the end of the strip,
where we know there is work for us. A couple of thrushes

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 159

bustle overhead, fluttering J 's nerves considerably.

Then the usual rabbit, at its wits' end to account for the
hubbub in these well-guarded woods, bolts across the roadway
without the challenge of a shot. Two pheasants followed,
rising at once almost perpendicular from the yellow ferns
into the air, and attempting to clear the hedgerow hazels,
under which the game is now closely hemmed in. Both
birds fall, and now the work for some time becomes after
its kind exciting. The pheasants, running about hither and
thither amongst bramble tangles, or wild rose thickets, put
off the much-dreaded flight until they can no longer find any
shelter. Then they get up with a swiftness and decision
which perhaps redeems the sport from the mere slaughter it
would be otherwise, by making it by no means easy to stop
them properly before they are behind the oak trees. We are
fairly successful, considering the difficulties of weather and
position, and soon there are half a score of " gorgeous slain,"
with two or three rabbits, to be picked up and handed over
to the care of the under keeper as a result of a first drive.
The process is repeated in another direction, when the guns
take places along the edge of some " springs " or sapling
oaks, waiting with as much patience as may be, until a black-
bird vidette or two, flitting hurriedly overhead, tells that the
beaters are approaching. Then the usual excitement and
" fusilade " comes off, with more or less satisfactory results.

During these autumn weeks nearly every bit of woodland
in the country sees something of this sort. While unques-
tionably not the highest development of woodcraft, properly
conducted pheasant shooting is by no means easy and
certainly not cruel sport. It is almost the only time when
the shooter finds his recreation in woods, which, before
winter has completely stripped the trees of their golden
spangles, are so proverbially lovely. The surroundings of
his amusement are delightful, though probably close to home ;
his victims are noble birds, and strong winged, even if they
are hand reared, nor by any means so easy to " stop "as is

160 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

often supposed. Bat all long tails do not come by their end
in the rain, or under the heavy handicapping of compulsory
flight over well-posted gunners ! There is that stray pheasant
we come across in the hedgerows when we have been out
shooting something else, who beguiles us into a long hunt
down the fallows until he gets into an old gravel pit in
company with a couple of hens; and a hare perhaps, and
gives us a very pretty shot as he leaves it. There is the
wandering bird who gets up under our noses far out in the
open marsh lands, from a spot far more promising for teal or
snipe than for any of his feather. We have even put up
pheasants when shooting grouse on heather, where never a
bush, much less a spinney or plantation, was within sight for
miles around. There is, indeed, hardly a place into which
these birds will not stray, and the rearer of game knows
this, and he must take the precaution to feed them well at
home if he is to keep within his own boundaries those birds
which will cost him little less than half a guinea a head
between egg-laying and larder. Personally, as we have said,
we do not much care for " corners " at cover side this autumn
weather, be it bright or misty. Birds at twenty shillings a
brace, though they cost us no more than their powder and
shot, are too much for us. Bather we prefer the fair quarry
of a strong-winged Exmoor cock pheasant, who keeps his
look-out amongst the stones and fern of the tors and turf
hills, and gets up with the noise and vigour of a bird of four
times his size. And we like those sea-shore pheasants of the
Devonshire combs, second to none in beauty of plumage and
robustness, which haunt the undercliff, and feed down to
high-water mark. We have had as pleasant a ramble as
could be desired, again, after the cocks that come with the
snow and frost, from goodness only knows where, to the
rhododendrons and yew hedges of Scot manses, or the laird's
outlying stackyards and last year's lambing pens. On all
such occasions of wandering sport the resulting "bag" would
look unconscionably foolish by the side of even a ^poor day's

PAETEIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 16 L

work outside a midland autumn wood but recently populated
from Leadenhall Market or game-rearing Suffolk ! Yet we
fancy, in this case at least, there is little wisdom in numbers.
Everything tends to show that the Englishman of the next
ten, years must be moderate in his views of sport, and for
ourselves we are ready for the change. Nothing, we think,
endangers at present our legitimate shootings in woodland
and stubble so much as over preserving, and debasing an
old-fashioned moderation in the desire to fill up our game
books and shoot a few more head of birds than our neigh-
bours.

Perhaps it would be too serious a retrogression to shoot
pheasants as Lord Byron did at Six Mile Bottom, to revive
the slow hunter pointers with bells round their necks of
one writer, or even Lord Middleton's " pottering clumbers ; "
yet there was good relish in our forefathers' sports !

For them their woods did not mean " one crowded hour
of glorious life " — and then idleness. The bloom might be
off the shooting season; the renter of moors had had his
last "drive," duly thinned out the weary old cock grouse,
closed his lodge, and come southward ; the keenness of the
partridge shooter for his special game was somewhat dulled,
yet there was still shooting to be had in the shires, and very
pretty work for the moderate-minded devotee to the gun.

Harvest over, of course, the all-involving steel of the
reaper had long since ceased to shine amongst the miniature
forests of tall yellow stalks, sweeping to one common ruin
the trembling crop, the gaudy blossoms of the poppies, the
delicate sisterhoods of the climbing convolvulus, and a world
of such tender vegetation that put its trust in the shelter of
the giant grain around it. Yet with harvest commenced the
old fashioned lowland shooter's campaign.

Who is there who amongst his earliest sporting achieve-
ments does not remember the delights of his first bout with
the rabbits in the stubble fields ? He must recall with
enthusiasm those outlying rabbits in Farmer Wurzel's

51

162 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

fifty acre plot, who had stolen at earliest dawn into the
patch of corn left uncut from yesterday's work, meeting
their fate from the muzzle-loaders of the farmer's boys
before the sun was clear of the elm tops. They thought,
perhaps, the square of wheat was cover enough when the
first of the workers came filing up through the lane into the
field at six a.m., bolted into it incontinently, and had hardly
a misgiving or a guess at how serious affairs were becoming
for them until the whish of the scythes grew closer and closer
on every side, and yellow daylight came down the furrows
that had lain before cool and damp in the green gloom of
flowering herbage. Then they made the delayed but unavoid-
able rush. Even such humble sport — the carnival of the
half-shorn corn — was good fun.

Bunny number one was " chopped " by an active lurcher
called up from guarding his master's lunch under the hedge
to take a share in the sport. Number two might have
reached the fern clump he was running for had fortune been
kinder. But, alike to heroes contending on Trojan plains
and conies delivered over to the sportsman, fate is sometimes
cold and forgetful of the brave, and thus he rolled over to a
charge of " 6 " to be soon stretched out by his comrade.
Number three did get away, because he had the sagacity
or good luck to dash close past the worthy farmer's
well-legginged legs, and his boy, Master Wurzel, was too
dutiful to risk the chance of "peppering the guvnor," though
the provocation was great. So the tale went on of the rough
game; some rabbits meeting their fate from the guns posted
at the fast dr a wing-in corners of the square, and others
coming by it in less legitimate fashion.

After this dusting of the rabbits comes the feast of St..
Partridge, with its hot tramps over bare stubbles in search
of " wee brown birds ; " and then the pheasant shooter's
chance, the competition for good corners in the pleasant
amber-tinted woods, the tipping of authoritative velveteens,
and the " heaps of gorgeous slain," as the daily papers have

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 163

it, laid out in the game rooms of country mansions. And
finally, when only the outermost twigs of elms are tagged
with yellow leaves — well — there is still something to be done.
We will suppose a shooter rises moderately early — for
enthusiasm must be tempered by experience in this matter
— while the October mist lingers in quiet hollows, and
gossamer laces the tall grasses and bramble sprays. He
breakfasts, and forthwith sets out, if of rational and quiet
inclinations, with a well-chosen friend, a brace, or perhaps
two, of steady setters, and a couple of bearers. Such an
array combines the comfort of individual sport with reason-
able chances of securing a good bag. Large parties I
abhor, while, on the other hand, two or three guns, with
bearers between them, are the least which can be reasonably
expected to give a decent account of the game flushed, and
properly work the ground in an open country. So we will
set to work, five of us, all told, including the keeper. We
have hardly swung our legs over the gate that separates our
first field from the road, when up spring a pair of partridges
from the cart ruts in front, twisting themselves over the
twelve-foot hawthorns before we can draw a head on them.
A little contretemps of this sort is by no means without its
useful purpose. The guns forthwith pull themselves together,
keep their weather eye open, and if again taken unawares
fully deserve all those hard things that will be said of them.
A little further on, out of sight of the footway, we bag our
first birds, an old cock, who sat overlong, wondering whether
we were harvesters come back again or open foemen, and
two youngsters who relied in the parental sagacity. We are
not above picking these birds up and stroking down their
exquisitely blended plumage of grey and russet, provided
our proceedings do not unduly interfere with the comfort
and decorum of the line. We greatly resent having our
game snapped up and crammed into that leather atrocity,
a hot game bag, before we have given a glance at it. Surely
if a man neither works his own dogs nor sees the birds his

164 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

gun has brought down, he might be just as profitably em-
ployed " blazing " into a bandbox full of sparrows. By far
the happier method of business is to take a personal interest
and a personal responsibility in all going on. These English
partridges feed chiefly during the quiet hours after sunrise
and before sunset. When, in the morning, the head of the
covey has stuffed out his russet gorget with a sufficiency of
ripe seeds and a flavouring of insect life perhaps, he betakes
himself, with all the members of his household, to a dry and
sunny spot where digestion and meditation may go on undis-
turbed. Birds will be found in the fallows and green crops
at all hours of the day when they have been disturbed. A
little practice soon enables the keen sportsman to know by
instinct where they ought to be, and it is curious how seldom
his intuition fails him.

We beat two or three fields with fair success, and try
them along the warm side of a " hanger " or sloping wood,
there making some varied additions to the bag. The rabbits,
for instance, have come out, and lie close until disturbed by
the dogs, when they flash across the green turf of the road-
way under fire of the innermost gun. Wood pigeons, too,
undertake rash peregrinations from amongst the last crisp
yellow leaves of the Spanish chestnuts, and are tumbled
unhesitatingly amid a cloud of feathers into the fern and
ling. Surely there is no such bird as the ringdove for shed-
ding its plumage. We have shot many, and yet never one
that had its feathers fixed to its cuticle with any reasonable
firmness. A hare occasionally comes deliberately out of the
ditch and limps along till a stop is put to her vagaries, and
the keeper parting the strong sinews of one leg, thrusts the
other through the opening, carrying the big beast thus on a
stick; she is too heavy and gross for delicately feathered
company. A pheasant is, mayhap, the next bird that falls,
rising behind the leftmost gunner from a clump of oak
springs, never struggling after he was struck, but coming
down heavily through the bare saplings.

PAETRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 165

These coppices of springs or knee-high oak are capital
cover for game, especially when, as is often the case, woods
adjoin. The ground is uneven and broken, with the com-
mencement of gravel-pits hardly deep enough to hide a
standing man, and holes whence stumps have been extracted.
Round the mossy rims of these are the hares' beaten foot-
paths, and where gravel and fine sand collect under over-
hanging brambles, partridges come in from pastures and
fallows of a morning to dust, being, sub rosa, often trapped
there by the knowing village poacher. This region boasts
many faggot stacks, strongholds of the weasel and stoat, and
building places dearly beloved by the industrious wren. Its
soil is deep vegetable mould, covered with an accumulation
of leaves and dried twigs, all to be added to the peaty store
in future years. In spring, bluebells carpet it as far as the
eye can see, making another firmament for the pale starlike
anemones and primroses to shine in. A touch of admiration
may be permitted to one who knows and loves such spots so
well. It is in these glades the nightingales muster strongly
each spring. We never listen to them without thinking of
Isaac Walton's tunefully expressed delight in their song,
for love-song it is. " Lord ! " he says, " if Thou allowest
such melody to bad men on earth, what music hast Thou
prepared for Thy saints in heaven."

At this time of the year the earth underfoot is perhaps a
trifle soft, but our boots are stout, and little we care for that.
The rabbits sit in every tussock of yellow fern, only bolting
out on the most pressing invitation. They dodge amongst the
brambles, a vision of grey fur and white " scut ; " two bounds
take them across the deep ruts of the woodland timber road,
and utilizing the trunks of those oaks whose girdles of blue
or red paint, like the cross on the lintels of the Israelites,
has saved them from destruction, they use every effort to get
away into the thick cover of the main woods or the burrows
which honeycomb their boundaries ; and it is a good gun,
well held, that stops eight out of the dozen in such circum-

166 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

stances. But we are getting our guns into the coppices — a
culpable trespass, as they are reserved for a great occasion.
Already a dozen or so of pheasants have met their fate, and
the keeper's face begins to wear a dubious expression as he
witnesses the untimely destruction of his proteges, when the
sportsmen who have been peppering their ground game pull
up a little reluctantly, emerging into the open once more.

If they get a chance of trying a willowy watercourse or
some reed beds, so much the better, as game is found in such
places now winter is close at hand that lends a variety to the
bag. Walking quietly down the brook sides where the trees
lean over, and the water rats make devious tracks in the soft
mud amongst the arcades of pendent coral-red rootlets, they
are sure to disturb something sooner or later. It may be a
heron — that fowl that seems to have learnt preternatural
shyness in the early centuries, when the sky was full of
hawks and " pasties " full of his kind — a bird that rises half
a mile away and sails up stream majestically ; or, perhaps,
it will be a fussy moorhen, as careless as the other is wary,
that springs from under the foot and flutters away over the
water meadows with both legs down — a comfortably easy
victim, were we so minded.

But a duck is what we desire and hope for down here ;
and out yonder, where the stream has overrun a marshy
corner and sown itself a garden of ragged watercress and
kingcups, we may safely look to a find. The guns take
either bank, and with the dogs in the slips we move quietly
down. It is just such a feeding-place as the mallard loves.
Amongst the deep soft growths the water has cut channels
a foot or so deep, and runs quietly through them, rolling
over the light gravel and playing about the jaws of the long,
grey pike, lying silent in wait in the sub-aqueous glades for
gudgeon and bleak which flash and frolic outside. A score
or so partially submerged willows dot the swamp, and have
collected amongst their branches tangles of reeds and grass
on which coots build, and hassocks of water-rush — that

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 167

whose pith the natives use for their "rush-lights" — mark
the limits to which spring freshets rise. This is a sure find.
The guns have just got within command of it when a mallard
sails out from a floating cress-bed. He gives a look at the
gunner on the right, floats round on the stream, glances at
the other enemy, and is up into the air with a deal of splash-
ing in a second. Two or three others rise and are accounted
for very easily, and a bevy of teal may get up or steal away
down stream, to be subsequently met with and thinned out
as they circle round the gunners.

There is hardly time for lunch in these short days — the
man in reasonably good condition ought to be able to walk
and shoot all the brief hours the sun is above the horizon
with little or no food. However, such exercise in the open
air is an undoubted provoker of appetite, and we may sup-
pose some sort of lunch is taken, leaning against a gate,
perhaps, or seated on a fallen elm log, while the boys put
out their game on the short, sharp-nibbled grass by the hedge
side in a comely row, and report the total. Then at it again,
beating the deep pits for rabbits, the broad hedgerows of
blackthorn and briar for outlying pheasants, and picking up
a couple or two of wood pigeons going to roost in the copper-
trunked firs of the homestead, the sun sinking down meanwhile
behind the western pastures, a huge globe of golden flame.

THE QUAIL POACHER AND THE PARTRIDGE THIEF.

Just as anthropologists tell us that centuries of experi-
ence and toil intervened between the formation of the first
smooth simple bone fish-hook, and the perfected instrument
of capture armed with its fatal barb, so the learning of the
field -and stream has continually taught both savage and
civilized races multitudinous and cunning methods whereby
the beasts and fishes of forest and flood may be taken for
food or other needs. Though this subject lays itself open
perhaps to the charge of being one of " poaching," I am by

168 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

no means ready to shrink before the spell of that dread
word. Far too much " sport " with the gun is nothing but
poaching at its worst, while the silent crafts of the woods
so readily stigmatized, are often of higher science than the
thoughtless suppose, needing a longer apprenticeship to
qualify for success, and the possession of more self-control,
more temper and judgment, with better eyesight and readi-
ness than the " gunner " nowadays is called upon to display.

" The corn-land loving quail," as Dray ton has it, may
serve us as an instance of a game bird, eagerly trapped and
snared wherever its presence is known and its culinary
qualities appreciated. Those crates densely packed with
unhappy victims that we see in the great poultry markets
of the kingdom are usually from the warm shores of the
Mediterranean. There the harvest of these small birds is
one of the most important of the year, and men, women, and
children have a busy time of it along the fertile shores of
Sicily and up the changing Adriatic, capturing the quails
in long nets as they arrive from the southward, boxing them
in dark, shallow cases, where the faint light prevents them
from indulging in the pugnacity of their species, and the
low canvas roof puts a stop to the possibility of their
courting suffocation by piling themselves three or four deep,
or rubbing the feathers from their heads.

The plan of action is as follows. When the great annual
migration sets in from the southward, and the flocks start
on their long and dangerous journey from the African coast,
the watchful " chasseurs " on the northern shores prepare
a welcome for the wanderers which is more complete than
kind. All along the edge of the tide, just above high- water
mark, poles are erected at intervals of ten or twelve feet
apart, and standing four feet from the ground. On the
landward side of these slight notches are cut, in which rest
the upper strands of long nets a little over three feet high,
and often extending as far as half a mile along the brink of
the sea.

PABTEIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 169

Then commences the flight of the wandering birds, and
some morning they begin to drop in by twos and threes,
skimming swift and silent just over the surface of the water,
all too "dead beat" with fatigue, doubtless, to keep a watch
ahead, and so they dash headlong into the toils ashore, and
the net falling from its notches keeps them securely prisoners
in the meshes. These shore nets take males only for the first
fortnight', as the females, detained possibly by family cares,
do not migrate till later. The whole population are em-
ployed perpetually walking up and down the nets, replacing
them where disturbed upon their notches, and packing the
birds for the epicurean kitchens of Europe.

"It is a far cry to Lahore ! " — or rather, to Cabul, in this
instance ; but the Afghans devote so much attention to our
bird, and prize it so greatly, that their modes of capture —
ingenuity itself — must not be overlooked.

Quails are caught, a recent writer informs us, principally
with the object of securing the cock birds, which are used
for combats. Quail and partridge fighting is as common in
Turkestan as game fighting used to be in this country, and as
goose fighting is at the present day in Russia. These fights
attract crowds of natives, on which occasion a good deal of
betting goes on, and a good, clever bird acquires celebrity.
There are special bazaars held in the towns, which are much
frequented, where young quails are sold, many of them bred
from noted birds with a pedigree. There are two chief
methods of catching quails resorted to by the natives. One
is simplicity itself. A hair noose is fastened to a lump of
clay, well worked together ; a number of these appliances
are scattered about the lucerne fields, which the quails are
fond of frequenting; the bird caught in the noose is pre-
vented from flying away owing to the weight of the clay,
and its getting easily entangled in the grass.

The other method is more complicated. The sports-
man has to represent an eagle ; for this purpose he puts a
stick tied in the form of a cross to another stick, which he

170 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

holds in one hand, into the sleeves of his khalat — a long, loose
overcoat ; in the other hand he holds a net, similar to the
one described above. Thus equipped, he proceeds to the
field sown with lucerne or millet. There he begins to imitate
the flight of the eagle. Walking along, he moves the stick
with the khalat gently from side to side, or, stopping, begins
to wave the khalat quicker and describing circles. The
quail, seeing this terrible monster, tries to run away, but,
being overtaken by the sham eagle, shrinks away somewhere
into a hole or bush. The sportsman describes a few circles
over the bird, and then secures him by covering him with
the net. This kind of sport is also resorted to by the
inhabitants of Samarcand.

Yet another method is with a kind of bag- shaped landing
net. Early in the morning, the sportsman, accompanied by
common house-dogs, which are trained to walk a few paces
in front to start the game, enters the field, carrying the net,
which has a long handle, holding it with both hands a little
to the right. When the quail rises, the sportsman, by a very
clever movement, covers the bird with the net, and then by
giving the latter a rapid turn or twist, the game is secured.
This, however, appears to be poor sport, six or seven birds
being all that can be caught during an entire morning, and
to achieve this even the sportsman must be well up to his
work.

Again, Bellew says, in his " Journal of a Mission to
Afghanistan," that in the early summer quails visit the
corn fields and vineyards about Candahar in vast numbers ;
they are usually caught in a large net thrown over the
standing corn at one end of the field, and are driven towards
this by a noise produced by a rope being drawn over the
corn from the other end, a man on each side of the field
holding one end of it. When a quail has been beaten in
fight his owner at once catches him up and screams in his
ear. This is supposed to frighten the remembrance of his
defeat out of his mind.

PAETE1DOES AND PHEASANTS. 171

Beaumont and Fletcher, our earliest dramatists, allude
to the " calling " on the familiar bird flute. With them
the quail is represented as entering the nets of the fowler
in response to the imitated cry of the female.

Several other striking modes of capturing these birds
are practised in the East. One very simple plan is for the
hunters to select a spot on which the quail are assembled
and to ride or walk round them in a large circle, or rather
in a constantly diminishing spiral. The birds are by this
process driven closer and closer together, until at last they
are packed in such masses that a net can be thrown over
them and a great number captured in it.

Arab boys catch the quail in various traps and springes,
the most ingenious of which is a kind of basket, the lid of
which overbalances itself by the weight of the bird, much
in the same way as that used in Russia for taking black-
game.

To come westward again, and turning to the pages of
that most popular of writers, the Rev. J. G. Wood, we read
that in Northern Africa these birds are captured in a curious
manner. As soon as notice is given that a flight of quails
has settled, all the men of the village turn out with their
great burnouses or cloaks. Making choice of some spot as
a centre where a quantity of brashwood grows or is laid
down, the men surround it on all sides, and move slowly
towards it, spreading their cloaks on their outstretched
hands, and flapping them like the wings of huge birds ;
indeed, when a man is seen from a distance performing
this act he looks like a huge bat. As the men converge on
the brushwood, the quails run to it for shelter, and creep
under the treacherous shade. Still holding their cloaks on
their outspread hands, the hunters, when within a few yards,
rush upon the brushwood, flinging burnouses over it, and
so enclosing the birds in a trap from which they cannot
escape. Much care is necessary that the birds should not
be driven in too quickly.

172 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

Bad as the Arab may be, negroes are amongst the worst
enemies of game birds, both at home and all over the
territory of the stars and stripes. In Maryland, for instance,
they work havoc amongst the quail by means of falling log
traps on the familiar figure-of-four principle, and in Texas
a wail of wrath and anger goes up from the local gunners,
who declare the negroes take entire flocks at a time, and
they never set any of the captured birds free for stock. In
this they show their characteristic improvidence, or want
of regard for the future. The birds for the most part are
taken alive to the neighbouring towns and villages, where
they sell them at what they consider a big price. Their
most destructive instrument is a mere pen built of sticks,
and covered with brush. They have four trenches leading
into the pen from opposite directions, coming to the surface
about its centre. These trenches inside the pen are partly
covered with bark and sticks, except at the centre, where
they all come together. Corn or peas are scattered thickly
in the pen and also in the trenches. When a flock of quail
comes along, they find the food in the trenches, eagerly
follow it up, and, with rare exceptions, every one of them
goes into the pen, and is there a prisoner. He never thinks
of looking down for the hole he came in at ; he looks upward
all the time and sees no way of escape. The freedman comes
along and transfers the poor birds from the pen to his cage
— from one prison to another. Thus whole regions are
swept of their quail in the Southern States.

Darwin, in his delightful "Naturalist's Voyage Hound
the World in the Beagle" mentions a really sportsmanlike
plan of action which, could it be imported, would add a
pleasant variety to the list of English out-of-door sports.
He describes how the South American Gauchos used to
catch the tinamous with a small lasso, or running noose,
made of the stem of an ostrich feather fastened to the end
of a long stick. A boy on a quiet old horse, Darwin says,
frequently would catch thirty or forty birds in a day.

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 173

This " tinamous" is a bird in appearance something between
a quail and a partridge, but more closely allied in structure
to the former.

It will be seen that the existence of these little birds,
with enemies on every shore, is "not a happy one." Even
in Malta the natives keep dogs who are especially trained
for quail hunting. When the nights arrive the huntsman
goes forth with his trusty dog and an ordinary casting-net
over his arm. The dog hunts for the birds, which he finds
by scent, and drives very slowly before him to the base
of one of the numerous stone walls which cut up the island
in every direction. Here the quail crouches, awed by its
canine foe, who then remains motionless within a yard or
so, until the man creeps up and throws the casting-net over
both dog and bird.

In our own southern counties, advantage is taken of the
disinclination of the quail to fly while it can use its legs,
and V-shaped enclosures are formed with low brushwood
sides, a couple of hundred yards wide at the mouth, but
tapering down to a point, whence a single small opening
gives access to a netted chamber. Men and boys then drive
the game slowly into the open V, and the birds, running
from their enemies, coast down the sides of the snare until
they come to the apex, and crowd through the opening into
the fatal chamber, the net over which renders their wings
useless.

Turning to partridges we would suggest that, much as
we owe agriculturally to the inventor of those highly
perfected machines which shear our corn-fields to the last
inch or two of straw, and lay out the yellow harvest with
mathematical precision over the close-cropped land, from
a sportsman's point of view the work is done too well and
too thoroughly. Not so very long ago the occupation of the
gleaner was a substantial reality, and less the utter myth
of to-day, while the reaper's sickle or scythe never cut corn
quite down to its last joint, but left a reasonable amount

174 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

of growth, something that might afford fair harbourage for
game. Now all this has changed, and leather leggings no
longer brush through dry, ankle-deep stubble on the First,
nor, saving under exceptional circumstances, or in remote
districts where machinery is unknown, can keepers make
the birds lie in the corn lands as they should without the
aid of " hawks," or some other scarcely legitimate process.
And not alone does the sportsman hear with qualified satis-
faction the " reapers' " busy whirr, but there is also another
class, the fraternity of nets and lurchers, who consider them-
selves aggrieved by modern economical farming, complain-
ing that " birds " do not " busk " half so much on the
stubble as they used to. Yet the poaching fraternity manage
to find the coveys somewhere, and keep pace in ingenuity
with the march of civilization, and, without doubt, most of
those partridges which are to be had secretly a little before
September dawns, or suspiciously early on the first day
of that month, have come by their fate under the moonlight,
untouched by any gun. One could wish that there was
more room for the poacher to satisfy his love of woodcraft
in these islands without infringing on the rights of private
property, for he is at bottom generally a good fellow, and
that instinctive love of the chase taking him to hedgerows
with pockets full of cunningly twisted nooses, or a coil of
close netting tucked away in the skirt of his coat, is in most
cases essentially the same passion as prompts the enthusiasm
and delight of the truest and strictest sportsman who ever
pressed a trigger or shot over dogs. Nor must it be for-
gotten that the strict definition of poaching, like that of
virtue itself, is apt to be modified and altered according
to varying times and usages. What was lawful sport in one
age may become the rankest sylvan high treason in the next ;
and Hodge and his kindred, who disregard strict limits of
close seasons, or take any advantage of game which their
wits can suggest, do no worse than many a keen fowler did
a few generations back, greatly to the increasing of his own

PAETRIDOES AND PHEASANTS. 175

fame and advantage ; so largely does custom regulate these
matters. But the poacher of one kind or another has always
been " in hot water." When those winged bulls of Nineveh
were still uncarved in their native quarries game laws were,
no doubt, an old and vexed question in the Assyrian courts,
and mighty hunters of that empire exerted their skill in
devising tortures wherewith to enhedge the sanctity of royal
preserves and deter intruders. The game thief of our day
need not fear having his eyelids cut off, or^being buried up
to his chin in the hot desert sands facing the sun, or sewn
up in a raw bull's hide, which by gradual but resistless
contraction crushes the life out of him. Yet these were once
legal procedures for the same offence where Nimrod ruled.
Even the milder but effective remonstrance of our Norman
kings, the putting out of a right eye and the lopping of a
right thumb in the case of those who misdirected their shafts
amongst the king's deer, are measures too drastic for the
spirit of the age. We do not now tie the hares Hodge has
poached round his neck and make him wear them thus for
a month or two, the evidence and punishment of his guilt,
as was done with much success in mediseval princedoms, but
we give Hodge " fourteen days " and bread and water, and
even this does not cure him of his " delight on a shiny
night."

Probably the least observant of travellers through our
fair and fertile shires has noticed, as he has been swept by
meadow and coppice on the iron road, withy bushes and
brambles dotted about pasture and corn land, apparently
aimlessly, where there could be no cause or reason for bushes
to grow, and he will see they are not big enough for cattle
to scratch against, and far too small for shelter. These, we
regret to say, illustrate the watchful care required in modern
game preserving, and the mistrust of all ungaitered kind
abiding in the mind of the gamekeeper. They are put down
wholly for the confusion of the poacher, and indicate the
manner of that worthy's nightly raids. The partridge,

176 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

unlike the pheasant, roosts upon the ground, choosing if
possible a dry, elevated spot, such as a sandy meadow under
a hanger, or bit of woodland sufficient to keep off the north
wind. In such a spot the whole covey will collect at dusk,
filling the vale with their pipings to gather the family and
recall stragglers. Our poets have noticed this peaceful
sound of the twilight. Burns speaks of " paitricks scraichin'
loud at e'en," and Hurdis says, " I love to hear the cry of
the night-loving partridge," while Grahame describes how
at evening " stillness, heart-soothing, reigns, Save now and
then the partridge's late call." But our poacher, as he sucks
his short clay and leans on the weather-worn field gate, notes
the soft sound, too, and not only the calling of one covey,
but that of half a dozen, making his plans forthwith. Two
or three men are required for this nefarious work, with a
dogcart, if possible, to carry the spoil and facilitate escape.
As soon as the pink glow is out of the sky in the east, and
keepers may fairly be supposed to be enjoying an after-
dinner smoke before setting forth for their evening patrol,
the work begins, the trap is driven quietly to the scene of
action, and while one hand stays by it to watch, two others
take each the extreme ends of a long, fine drag-net, and
walk slowly across the field, including, of course, all those
spots where coveys have been marked down at sunset. That
the men are loth to lose nets and gear when surprised, and
will defend them with bludgeons or worse, may be under-
stood when it is remembered these nets are sometimes of the
finest silk thread throughout, as light and strong as they
are costly. When birds are reached it is known by one or
two rising tumultuously into the meshes ; then the net is
lowered instantly, and probably the whole covey, which sits
close in a circle, tails inwards and heads out, is enclosed.
Very short shrift then falls to the luckless brood, all of them
finding their way before many minutes are out to the ready
sack under the dog-cart seat, whereupon the net is ready
again for another beat over the fallows or grass lands,

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 177

provided they are not littered with those net- en tangling
bashes we have noted. " Poaching," Mr. Christopher Davies
remarks, "is a terrible thing. It is even more fascinating
than gambling, and in another way leads to as dire results.
The desire of sport, the attractions of a life which is idle
during the day, and busy only during the hours of darkness
— the occasional large profits easily earned, the excitement
of evading the law — make up a temptation which leads
many a decent man to drink, misery, and crime ; while his
starving family has to be supported by the parish."

One species or another of partridge is found in every part
of the inhabited globe, and everywhere they are eagerly
sought after. We read, for instance, in Bellew's " Journal
of a Mission to Afghanistan," how natives of Candahar adopt
a very novel and successful method of enticing these birds
within reach. They wear a mask or long veil of a coarse
yellow cotton cloth, dotted all over with black spots, having
eye-holes and hanging in loose folds round the body of the
sportsman. Thus disguised, he creeps cautiously on hands
and knees towards the spot from whence the " chickor " calls.
The bird takes him for a leopard, an animal to which it has
the greatest aversion, and will collect all its species in the
neighbourhood with loud calls, and allow the make-belief to
approach while they scream and nutter about him, when
with gun or net, he can secure them with little difficulty.

For catching partridges, a peculiar kind of bow is used
in Turkestan. It is formed of a long elastic rod, which is
stuck into the ground, and then bent down and held in that
position by a small catch arranged on a fork-shaped twig
stuck into the ground ; upon the catch are placed small sticks,
on which the noose of the bow is ranged, under which some
food is strewn, generally Indian corn. As soon as the bird
steps on one of the sticks placed on the catch, the bow
becomes detached, and he flies upwards with the latter,
caught in the noose either by the leg or head. There is
another original appliance for catching partridges in the

178 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

same country, winch may be called, for the want of a "better
term, a fowling line. It consists of a peg with strong twine
attached to it, on the end of which is fastened a grain- of
Indian corn. A whole row of these pegs are driven into the
ground along a path among the reeds. The partridge or
pheasant in swallowing the grain, becomes captive, and re-
mains attached to the peg, until the sportsman makes his
appearance. These birds and smaller ones are taken by
Pardis, a wandering tribe of Indians, in long, conical bag-
nets, kept open by hoops, and provided with a pair of folding
doors. Bullocks are used to walk through the long jungle
grass, and drive the birds into the nets, without alarming
them sufficiently to cause them to fly. After the usual
thoughtless cruelty of their race, the Pardis break both wings
and legs of each bird directly after capture, and thus the
miserable victims are carried through a hot morning sun, all
basketed together, to market.

Hardly less curious is a description we find in Johnson's
" Indian Field Sports." The Hindoos are there said to equip
themselves with a light framework of split bamboos, resem-
bling the skeleton of a kite, and covered with green twigs,
leaving two loopholes to see through, and another lower down
for the insertion of the rod. This they fasten before them
when they are in the act of catching birds, thus leaving both
hands at liberty, and remaining completely concealed from
view. The wand which they use is twenty-four feet long,
resembling a fishing rod. They also carry with them horse-
hair nooses of different sizes and strength, likewise birdlime,
and a variety of calls, with which they can imitate the various
birds' notes with the utmost nicety. As they proceed through
the various covers, they use the different cries for the birds
which they think reside there, and when the call is answered,
suppose it be a bevy of quails, they continue piping them
until they get quite close ; they then arm the top of their rod
with a feather smeared in birdlime, and pass it through the
lower hole in their frame of ambush, and continue adding

PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 179

other parts until they have five or six out, which they use
with great dexterity, finally touching one of the quails with
the feather, which adheres to him. They then withdraw
the rod, arm it again, and touch three or four more in the
same manner, before they attempt to snare any.

In Nubia the village dogs, the lurchers of the White Nile
poacher, are trained with much skill to run down and capture
partridges alive in the furrows of the cultivated land. In
Turkestan, sand-grouse, a species closely resembling English
partridges in flight and habits, are taken by cotton drag-nets,
worked almost exactly on the principle of those used by
night along our own covert sides. These drag-nets are not
the only methods of illegitimate sport our poachers know.
In the eastern and southern counties of England, a peculiar
sort of spring snare is used, set in the sandy spots of the
fields, where partridges dust, whole coveys being taken
thereby.

Sometimes, if the little bird is scared or wild, then a
gang will take a change from stubble or plough, making a
raid under the stars upon the woodlands. " On clear, bright
winter nights," says a knowing authority, "when the full
moon is almost at the zenith, and the definition of tree and
bough in the flood of light seems to equal, if not to exceed,
that of the noonday, some poaching used to be accomplished
with the aid of a horsehair noose on the end of a long slender
wand, the loop being insidiously slipped over the bird's head,
usually a pheasant, while at roost. By constant practice a
wonderful dexterity may be acquired at this trick. Men will
snare almost any bird in broad moonlight." Pheasants are
frequently taken by poachers in loops set in ditch bottoms
and wood fences ; but as the pheasant would probably with-
draw his head were the noose made of wire, it is formed of
plaited horsehair, and is then very successful. In fact, at
home as abroad, " game " by no means sleeps secure until
the shield of the law is formally withdrawn from it. Many
a yellow stubble is swept, and many a coppice of hazel and

180 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

larch visited before the lawful " season " begins, and all the
care and vigilance of keepers is required to protect for
" the First " the partridges or pheasants reared with that
patience and costliness, which is a feature of modern game
preserving.

CHAPTER VII.
PIGEONS.

WOOD PIGEONS, AND THE CASE AGAINST THEM.

IT must sometimes have occurred to any thoughtful person
to wonder what heights the discontent of the British farmer
would reach, were his mild northern plagues changed for
some of those which scourge his fellow- subjects and kinsmen
elsewhere !

He strains at a gnat in, let us say, the shape of a turnip-
fly, while his brown-skinned brothers are swallowing that
camel the locust ; he grumbles profusely if an " emmet " or
two gets into the dairy milk-pans, yet were he translated into
a Hindoo grazier, dairy and cattle-sheds — I had almost added
crockery itself — would crumble to dust before white ants ;
and what are cattle flies to tarantulas, scorpions, leeches, or
mosquitos ? Even pheasants swarming out to his barley
fields are better than a score of wild pigs in a corn-croft;
and, lastly, though our comparisons are not exhausted,
what loss has he to complain of due to the amiable cushat
compared to the havoc the passenger pigeon commits in
America ?

There he might be visited day after day by a solid column
of birds " a mile broad, by two hundred and fifty miles long,"
as Wilson cheerfully expresses it ; he might own their breeding-
grounds, a wooded range of mountains where every spruce
bent under the weight of nests, where the ground was white
as though covered with snow for miles with the pigeons'

182 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

droppings, and where the noise of wings when they rose at
morning or settled in the evening was like the sound of a
gigantic hailstorm on a frozen lake !

Compared to this our own native bird in its mild numbers
is surely a friend. Once, perhaps, long ago, he was too
numerous. Gilbert White writes, " I have consulted a sports-
man who tells me that fifty or sixty years back, when the
beechen woods were much more extensive than at present,
the number of wood pigeons was astonishing; that he has
often killed near twenty in a day ; and that with a long
fowling-piece he has shot seven or eight at a time on the
wing as they came wheeling overhead. He moreover adds,
which I was not aware of, that often there are amongst them
little parties of small blue doves which he calls rockiers.
The food of these numberless migrants was beechmast and
some acorns."

To-day such gatherings as these are rare, as far as my
knowledge goes. Small flights of ten or twenty, or more
commonly still, a pair or two at a time, are about the usual
numbers visiting our enclosures and fields. Wherever woods
are, there will always be some, though they fly long distances
for food.

Our English poets, who are deeply indebted to the pigeon
for a thousand metaphors, seem to have been quaintly "at
sea " with regard to the varieties of their favourite bird.
"Apart from the dove general," Mr. Phil. Robinson tells us
" the poets employ the dove particular — the ring dove, the
stock dove, and the turtle dove. But what relation each
species bears to the other the poets never considered them-
selves at liberty to determine. Watts makes ' the turtle '
the opposite sex of ' the dove ' — ' no more the turtle leaves
the dove ' — but allows at the same time by implication the
existence of a female turtle ; while Cowper makes it the
female, though elsewhere, with Spenser, making it the male.
Thomson uses the stock dove as the male of the turtle, Cowper
as the male of the ring dove, and Wordsworth as the female

PIGEONS. 183

of it. As a general rule, ring doves are ' lie ' and turtles ' she '
(chiefly widows) ; while stock doves are one or the other, as
poetical exigencies require. But the ultimate outcome of
this reciprocity of sexes and species is a ring — stock — turtle —
dove, as elastic in its properties as even poets could desire,
and as variously endowed as any Pandora- Proteus."

To return to stern facts again, farmers shoot the ring
dove when they can ; firstly, because he is fond of peas, and
secondly, because he loves turnip tops, especially when the
weather is hard.

It would take more amiable effrontery than I possess to
deny these charges. Pulse of every sort or kind has an
irresistible attraction to Columbian nature, and is searched
for eagerly and devoured greedily wherever it is obtainable.
While there can thus be no doubt that wood pigeons will
eat all the peas or tares they can find, I am not quite sure,
from my own observations, whether they actually shell them
for themselves. If they cannot and do not, then half their
guilt is purged at once, for it is obvious that the consumption
of shed peas — no good to any one — is a very light offence.

In the turnip fields they graze like a flock of sheep,
tugging the tender green leaves from swedes and " Carter's
best Dutch " roots preparatory to bolting them in pieces as
big as a postage stamp. I have shot them when they have
been returning to roost from these vegetarian excesses, and
on several occasions a bird's crop has been so full of this food
that it has burst in falling, and a large handful of leaves
has been scattered about. Surely the gastric juices which
can assimilate such a mass of raw stuff during the hours of
the night ought to be the envy of all dyspeptics. The birds,
however, seem to thrive on this diet, while their flesh takes a
rather strong and musty smell which can readily be recog-
nized after a little acquaintance.

Were these two items the only ones on their bill of fare,
the case against the wood pigeons would indeed look serious.
Bat it is not so, and any one interested in the question

184 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

should shoot a bird or two when they seem to have been
doing the greatest mischief, and make an examination into
the uncontrovertible evidence of their crops. The revelation
will, I venture to think, be instructive. There is a passage
in Mr. St. John's "Sketches of the Highlands " well illus-
trating this. He writes —

" An agricultural friend of mine pointed out to me the
other day an immense flock of wood pigeons busily at work
in a field of clover which had been under barley the last
season. ' There,' he said, ' you constantly tell me every bird
does more good than harm ; what good are those birds doing
to my young clover ? ' On this, in furtherance of my
favourite axiom that every wild animal is of some service
to man, I determined to shoot some of the birds to see what
they were actually feeding upon, for I did not at all fall in
with my friend's idea that they were gorging upon his
clover.

" By watching in their line of flight from the field to the
woods, and sending a man round to drive them off the
clover, I managed to kill eight of the birds as they flew over
my head. I took them to his house and we opened their
crops to see what they contained. Every pigeon's crop was
as full as it could possibly be of two of the worst weeds in
the country, the wild mustard (' charlock ') and the ragweed,
which they had found remaining on the ground, these plants
ripening and dropping their seeds before the corn is cut.

" Then no amount of human labour and research could
collect on the same ground, at that time of year, even as
much of these seeds as was consumed by each of these five
or six hundred wood pigeons daily for five or six weeks
together."

The above well indicates the importance of condemning
no bird on appearances. Without such practical evidence
the farmer would pay a boy daily to scare away the doves,
would pay again to hoe out the charlock and ragweed before
burning it, and lose once more at harvest by a " dirty "

PIGEONS.. 1S5

sample of corn, and every penny of this would have been
wilfully thrown away !

Wild fruits figure largely in cushats' meals. From a crop
recently opened, six hundred and ten ivy berries and a few
undistinguishable fragments were taken. The Rev. F. CX
Morris, in his "British Birds," points out this diversity.
" The wood pigeon feeds on grain in all its stages, wheat,
barley, and oats ; peas, beans, vetches, and acorns ; beech
mast, the seeds of fir cones, wild mustard, charlock, rag-
weed, and other seeds ; green clover, grasses, small esculent
roots, ivy and other berries, and in winter on turnip
leaves — and their, roots in hard weather — the first-named are
swallowed whole.

" It may safely be said that any damage it does, and it
must be confessed some is done by it amongst seed tares
and pea fields, is abundantly compensated by the good it
effects in the destruction of the seeds of injurious plants."

We do not think there is anything more to be noted in
this subject. It is plain that in excessive numbers and in
certain districts the "quist" might become very harmful
to one or two specialities of agriculture ; but what has been
said should indicate the bird has a usefulness of its own.
One other charge against him we are bound to notice. It
is one that chiefly affects the male bird and not that luckless
waive, his mate.

Wood pigeons, as well as blackgame, and the rapidly
increasing capercailzie in certain parts of the country, do
damage to woods. The two latter feed upon the young
shoots of firs and other trees, and buds and twigs may be
turned out of their crops sometimes. Wood pigeons do harm
in a different way. Any one who has walked through woods
frequented by them, about five o'clock on a bright summer
morning, has doubtless been soothed by the cooing of unnum-
bered doves perched on the tree-tops, their mates keeping
house below. A beautiful sound it is, but that is just the
time the mischief is done. Every pigeon sits as near heaven

186 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

on a fine morning as he can, which, in a fir wood, means on
the leaders of the trees — at that season young and tender.
In the leader of a young fir is centred all the promise of a
clean, straight stem, pointing direct from the axis of the
earth to the zenith. When this is bent aside, the tendency,
especially of all the Picea or silver fir tribe, is to send up
several leaders ; the result being seen in double or treble
stems, instead of one fair clean shaft. Therefore the wood
pigeons, which are less easily kept under control than rabbits,
may be looked on as injurious to young fir woods to some
small extent. But it is not every fir they perch upon even
in a forest of larch and spruce, nor can we think any but a
very small proportion of these resinous little apexes would
be permanently distorted by their weight. More often plan-
tations are of several sorts of trees, the beech and aspen over-
topping the firs, at least while the latter are young and tender.
The highest trees, again, in a wood are often the stunted,
worthless little bushes that crown some rocky knoll clothed
with fern and foxglove. If a legion of pigeons were to perch
on such a spot for a month, the damage done would not
amount to the value of the good white paper wasted by him
who first made the accu-sation ! I cannot think this indict-
ment is a very important one.

And then what a pleasant bird the wood pigeon is, and
surely of more account than many timber merchants ! Cop-
pice and hanger would lose half their attraction without his
presence, the loud beat of his wings as he takes to flight,
or the flash of his blue plumage where the sun comes down
through the branches. Truly the ring dove is not much of a
game bird, though I have stalked him when I first began to
shoot with all the patient ardour of a Red Indian, and held
him a well-earned trophy at the end of an hour's watch.

He is most off his guard — and I betray him with some
reluctance — when returning at night to his fir trees, and by
standing quietly beneath them as the birds circle round and
drop down into the deep shadows, many a gallant pie may be

PIGEONS. 187

furnished. But such sport should not be disguised under a
thin veneer of virtue. We shoot the wood doves because
they are toothsome; they are of no more harm in the aggre-
gate to the farmer, I confidently believe, than "the tame
villatic fowl " — and not so much, if the enemies of poultry
are to be believed.

In winter time there is hardly a bird in the country side
which makes its presence more felt than this watchful and
suspicious admirer of pea stubbles. Pheasants have been
decimated, the partridges scattered, and coverts beaten as
much as they will be each year, yet the wood pigeons are as
numerous as ever. Gamekeepers have an inveterate grudge
against them, and farmers, at least of the old unreasoning
school, attribute numberless enormities to them. For them
to suppose they will fly over a ripe pea-field and not perform
a couple of turns round and then descend to take toll of
the tempting pulse, is to expect too much, as I have said.
But peas are ripe before pigeons congregate, and a pint or
two pillaged by them counts but little in comparison with
the pecks of the seed of gaudy but villainous charlock, and
of flaunting poppy grains they make away with. That they
enjoy turnip-tops in hard weather there is no denying;
but those holes pecked into the roots themselves, which let
in frost and do much damage, are not done by the quists.
Therefore, against the agriculturist's condemnation of these
dwellers amongst the beech trees, we put forward the familiar
Hibernian plea that "the culprits are innocent, and moreover
have extenuating circumstances in their favour ! "

An examination of a few birds' crops would always
restore them to rustic favour, and Master Tommy or Harry,
fresh from school, will undertake the obtaining of the birds
with delight. Indeed, waiting as they come to roost in their
favourite ivy-covered firs as mentioned, is an amusement
not without its pleasures for those who shun the " pomp and
circumstance " of modern sport. There are the long vistas
of the pine stems glowing red in the last rays of the winter

188 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

sun, the yellow and scarlet carpet of last autumn's dead
ferns below, and the bits of blue sky overhead across which
flash the birds destined to bear posthumous testimony to
this argument of ours. Or we may wait for them in the
day time amongst the decoys, with success proportionate to
our knowledge of their habits and powers of hiding.

Of four species of doves inhabiting Britain there is only
one really known to a non- ornithological public, or familiar
to those growers of corn and roots who naturally regard all
birds from the standpoint of their usefulness or destructive-
ness. This bird is the blue-rock, the cushat of the poets,
the quist, wood pigeon, and ring dove of country people.
About those turtle doves that come with the spring from
Algerian and Spanish olive gardens, the grower of swedes
and barley need not trouble himself. Country ramblers in
Kent or the Midlands, however, who keep their eyes open,
may have noticed wisps of these birds, in appearance a little
like missel-thrushes, with an extra allowance of tail, but
characterized by a true Columbian flight, rising from pea
stubbles or open stony glebes, where their colour matches
so exactly the surrounding wastes that they are invisible to
man or hawk until they rise on the wing. But these
" Wrekin doves," as they call them in Yorkshire, are not
numerous anywhere, and still less conspicuous even in the
select localities to which they return year after year.
Probably few other birds of their size in England are less
molested. Hardly ever shot at except by a young and radical
gamekeeper, or an early partridge shooter of an inquisitive
turn of mind, they use our woodlands for their nestings, and
get away again southward while hedgerows are thick and
the yellow autumn corn still nods to the south-westers.

The stock dove, another of our four species, is very
generally confounded with the common blue pigeon by those
who ought to know better, though it must be conceded there
is much resemblance between them at a little distance.
Near at hand we may recognize the former by its lesser size,

PIGEONS. 189

a different shade of colour, and the absence of that white
ring round the neck which marks a true wood pigeon. This
bird is perhaps less a dove of the high woods than the
cushat; it loves outskirts and open warrens, where, as often
as not, it utilizes a deserted rabbit burrow for a nesting-
place — a curious fancy for a pigeon ! — and deposits two
white eggs an arm's length down amongst black roots of
bracken and wire-tough fibres of ling. Both these latter
species, feeding together, are'often included in the same sweep
of a fowler's net and tumbled incontinentlj into his market
crate, while many worthy folk who see them on the poulterer's
hooks suspect no difference between their breed and that of
the ordinary pigeon of commerce.

The rock dove of St. Abb's Head and the caverns of the
Cornish coast is the last English bird of this family. But
we have now in view some means, besides that of the gun,
by which wood pigeons may be induced to leave our tender
young turnip-tops alone, or may be checked in their larcenous
enterprises with relation to the expensive food we put out
in our woodland drives for the pheasants during the hard
weather. Amongst green crops, trapping the pigeons is
probably the best remedy to be adopted. If a few common
gins be set in the neighbourhood of the spots at which the
pigeons mostly congregate, birds are certain to be caught,
and so alarm the others that they will not return for some
time. Stretching pieces of stout cotton, to which feathers
or bits of red flannel are attached, is also very startling to
these fowl. For the open spaces in coverts, or in a drive or
clearing under trees where pigeons perch, a long, strong,
and springy ash or other pole, of about the thickness of
a man's wrist, is sometimes securely fastened down by one
end; the other loose end is then drawn as far back as
possible, and held there by a peg so placed as to be easily
withdrawn by a string held in a distant hiding-place. After
a few days' feeding with pheasant food, the wood pigeons will
come in great numbers. Food is scattered on the space

190 BTRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

which will be swept by the ash stick when released, and the
watcher then retires to his secure hiding-place with the end
of the string in hand. On a sufficient number of birds
having settled, the string is pulled, the peg is withdrawn,
and the sapling flies round, carrying destruction to every-
thing in its path. The great advantage of this villainous
device is its silence.

Were the English " velveteens " less conservative and
orthodox in his views of what the limits of his duties are,
he might take a hint from the " foreigner " in trapping blue
rocks. The woods in Northern Italy are often bisected by
narrow and deep road-cuttings made by the charcoal burners
and others. Pigeons are taken here in vast numbers by
a method which must be seen to be fully understood. From
tree to tree in the road-cutting a light but strong net will be
hung. Small boys then take up their position on stages
built among the branches of neighbouring trees, and whistle
and call as the birds are returning to roost. When a flock
approaches, such a boy whirls round his head a stuffed pigeon,
having a weight in its head and a string near the tail, by
which he holds it and hurls it at the net. The wild birds,
accepting its treacherous guidance, swoop down and dash
into the net, in which they are at once entangled. A hundred
or more will be taken at once by this device. It is, perhaps,
too much to expect of the guardians of our woods and
coppices that they should perch themselves in the fork of
a convenient oak and there twirl the disc and drop the net
as the raiders of corn shocks and! pea haulm go homewards
down chestnut-covered pathways after their foraging expedi-
tions. Yet, where pigeons migrate at certain seasons in
large bodies, good work is done by a method nearly allied
to that above described.

If we suppose ourselves standing in a gap on the sky-line
of the Pyrenees or Savoy Alps at daybreak, we shall see how
the mountain herdsmen replenish the village markets and
provide the chief ingredient of pigeon pate for wandering

PIGEONS. 191

tourists. On the very ridge there is probably a little level
ground — an inviting pass between rocky bush-covered crags
on either side. This little plateau is clear of underwood,
and three or four oak trees, left at convenient distances, dot
its surface.

It serves as a tempting and well-used short cut for the
pigeons coming down the valley ; and among the branches of
the oaks through which they would naturally pass are planted
long, strong poles, supporting nets reaching to the ground,
and so arranged with "bridles" and pulleys that they can be
made to collapse instantly, one after the other, from neigh-
bouring hiding-places. Should any one think of trying this
arrangement in Canada or elsewhere, he may be able to do
so from the more detailed description of a writer in the
Field. He describes the ridge as " more or less level for
some two hundred and fifty yards, which space has been
cleared of all wood with the exception of six huge oaks
standing in line, but rises abruptly from the level to the
eastward. At the height of about forty feet in each oak was
fixed a spar, from which depended a rope, with the lower
end pegged to the ground, and carrying a wooden travelling
ring weighted with iron. Each spar also had a block and
halyards, the standing part of the latter being fast to the
wooden ring. The nets, one inch and three quarters mesh,
and about fifty feet broad, have their upper corners hooked
on to two of the wooden rings, and are thus hoisted into
position ; the lower ends are drawn backwards, i.e. south-
wards, for about thirty feet and pegged down ; the two
halyards of each net are hooked to a single trigger, and all is
then ready."

On commanding points overlooking the glen that lies in
the purple shadow of daybreak are posted small boys, whose
duty it is to keep the pigeons to the valley, and warn the
netsmen of their approach by a little judicious shouting.
On the ridge the leader of the gang perches himself in a
tree a little in front of the nets. He is armed with some

192 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

light wooden discs, which he hurls at the birds as they pass
him, with the result that they swoop down and come within
the drop of the nets. Waiting in " the chill of the pearly
dawn " is no doubt cold enough in these mountain solitudes ;
but as the sun comes over the ranges in the east, a traveller
tells us, " we begin to hear the cries of the flagboys in the
distance announcing that the first of the birds were in sight,
and the fears entertained of. a possibly blank day are dis-
pelled. In a couple of minutes a shrill whistle from the
chief was the signal for every one to rush into hiding. A
few seconds of breathless suspense, and the silence was
broken by a rushing sound overhead and a simultaneous
collapse of four nets with seventeen blue rocks fluttering on
the ground underneath them. It was not, perhaps, sport,
but it certainly was most exciting. The net men rushed out
and retrieved them. Bach bird as it was gathered was
plucked of the feathers of one wing, and put into the front
pocket of a sort of apron the net men wore, and eventually
transferred to a receptacle formed of boughs built round the
trunk of a tree. As soon as the last bird was gathered, the
nets were smartly hoisted again, as the shouts of the flagboys
were already heard. In a few minutes, another whistle and
another rushing of wings ; but, instead of the rattle of falling
nets, there ensues a perfect hurricane of the most awful
oaths from the nest in the beech tree, proclaiming to the
initiated that the pigeons had passed over the nets and gone
on their way untouched." Twenty to thirty dozen birds are
sometimes taken in the early twilight by this curious and
unique arrangement.

The beautiful fruit pigeon of Bengal, brilliant in yellow
and claret colour, is taken in nets hung between fig trees to
ensnare flying foxes. These nets, or something very like
them, are mentioned in the oldest Sanskrit writings, and are
suggested on Assyrian bas-reliefs and Egyptian frescoes.
The American passenger pigeon, a genuine farm pest, is
thus caught in Maine, U.S. A piece of ground, about thirty

PIGEONS. 193

feet by fifteen feet, is levelled and smoothed so as to look
something like a concrete tennis court. Near it are fixed
some tree tops, about twelve feet to fifteen feet high, form-
ing a sort of fence around, and affording a place for the
birds to perch on. A bough house or cachet is built at one
end of the bed, in which the catcher could sit hidden from
the doves. Indian corn is put on the earthen floor, as it is
called, every day, until the birds come to find it out and
come to feed there regularly. The American pigeons turn
up in flocks about four p.m., and in the morning. When it
is known, by watching from a distance, that they feed, the
fowler goes down about a couple of hours before and sets his
nets, and sits in the bough-house until they are together, and
catches the lob by pulling the net at a judicious moment.
Very likely this plan, with a little modification, might be
A-ery successful amongst the faggot stacks and clearings of our
beech and oak woods.

To the poisoning of birds or animals of any sort there is
always the greatest objection. Not only must all such
methods seem criminal and cowardly, but they are often
absolutely dangerous to man and beast. Only a short time
ago the papers told us how a farm bailiff in East Kent had,
together with his wife and family, had a narrow escape from
death by arsenic. The man was walking through a wood
with his master, when he picked up a wood pigeon, appa-
rently freshly shot. He took it home and had it cooked. A
few hours after they had partaken of the meal he and his
family were seized with illness ; and the man himself showed
such serious symptoms that a doctor was summoned. The
usual remedies in cases of poisoning were administered, and
the man recovered. Another device, perhaps one degree
better than actual poisoning, is to place a sheaf or two of
oats or wheat in the field, and allow the birds to freely feed
from it for a day or so. Meanwhile some grain must be well
soaked in gin or brandy, the commoner and more fiery the
better. This should be spread thickly round the sheaf or

o

194 SISD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

sheaves, and the birds coming to feed upon it are quickly
stupefied and easily caught. A day's watching of such an
arrangement should result in a pretty fair clearance of birds.
Our own wild pigeons are not to be decoyed into the snare
by means of their own species, as is the case with some
kinds. Yet curiosity, or the suggestion of safety and food
which the presence of their kind at any spot seems to denote,
will often bring them within range of the gun, which, after
all, is the most apt instrument of destruction we have for
them. The worst of it is, that they are so superlatively
keen that the slightest error of judgment in making or
placing the " stales " is fatal to all chance of their usefulness.
Syrians call down flocks of wild doves by means of a tame
decoy, whose eyelids are sewn together, and who is fastened
in the neighbourhood of the hidden gunner armed with his
long ancestral matchlock. In the same way, in China, a
dove is fastened, blind, at the end of a slender switch jutting
out from the top of a tall pole planted in the ground. The
bird's weight causes the wand to bend and swing continually,
thus obliging it to use its wings in order to preserve its
balance. The decoy's movements very effectually attract the
notice of roaming flocks, which soon alight all around the
screen behind which the Celestial lies in wait.

Outside our coppices the village gunner uses decoys
of wood, metal, and indiarubber, shaped and painted to
resemble the live birds as nearly as possible ; but, as has been
said, there is an art in the placing of them, and even when
that is mastered we doubt whether " the game is worth the
candle." A gunner who knows the habits of the bird will
probably manage to pick up quite as many pigeons without
allies as he would with the best of them.

( 105 )

CHAPTER VIII.

DUCKS.

DUCKS IN MARSH AND MAEKET — THEIE ECONOMY AND FUTURE.

No doubt the patriotic wildfowler is glad to see agriculture
creeping down to every sea shore, and a careful husbandry-
snatching from tidal rivers and estuaries, foreshores and
marshes, since the steady advance of coulter and mattock
indicate the national vigour. Yet he may be excused a
sigh, for there cannot be the smallest doubt that wild-
fowling is becoming harder and harder to obtain every
year, at least in the southern half of England.

The state of the case is familiar enough to every marsh-
man. It matters little where he turns his steps, the old
familiar happy hunting grounds exist no more, as far as
sport is concerned ; the wastes inside the land wall have
been ploughed up, sown with lime, and now a trim crop of
turnips or button onions for some manufacturer of pickles
grow where, a little time ago, when our first gun was still
in its brilliant newness, the dykes were open and knee-
deep in water, blackthorn and elder formed impenetrable
thickets, ruffs played on the hummocks, big, wild-looking
cattle enjoyed their wallowings amongst whispering rushes
shoulder high, and nothing was heard but the larks and
plaintive whistling of plovers. But of course ducks don't
care for the turnip furrows or carrot plots, and they have
gone with the rest of the wild fauna. They will go just as
certainly if a series of tall volcanic chimneys soar into the

196 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

sky, while enterprising chalk works or what not "realize
the natural wealth of the neighbourhood ; " and thus the
wildfowler's land is all in new hands, the rivers on which
he punted to widgeon or brent geese are turgid and
churned by the screws of unnumbered steamers. Along the
actual sea coast it is nearly as bad. There used to be a
strip of debatable land, saltings that the sea, the shore-
shooter, and herdsmen shared equally between them; but
now the latter seems to have monopolized them. He keeps
the sea out with dreary mud banks, and the shooter with
notice boards and well " spiked " gates !

This is the unacred sportsman's view of the matter. For
those who own some soil by the water side, or even a pond
or two where wildfowl fly in of a night from the open sea,
the case is not so bad. They may still know a scaup from
a scoter, a shieldrake from a shoveller, when they come across
them. They shoot for their own larder, and when the flight
is on, or the weather severe, there are still enough stray birds
about what were once our wild lands to satisfy all their
modest demands. But profitable " decoy ponds " are things
of the past, and some of our largest game salesmen, with
whom I have gossiped on the subject, say we are more and
more dependent on Holland and the German coasts for our
wildfowl supplies. For a single week of January, 1886, we
drew " fur and feather " to the value of £15,000 from across
the North Sea, and meagre indeed would be our market
stalls were this source of supply to fail ! Of course our seas,
will always attract wildfowl, the great wilderness of the
Scottish kingdom, and the vast bays and sheltered estuaries
of the Green Island especially must remain more or less pro-
ductive. Sir Ralph Payne- Gall wey puts down the yearly
bag of the Wexford puntsmeii, some dozen or so in number,,
at three or four hundred birds apiece, even in the recent
succession of mild winters that have characterized our
climate, and he has seen three or four thousand widgeon
on a single sheet of water ! I do not think there is any

DUCKS. 197

prospect of these outer wildfowl grounds being depopulated
to any visible extent for a long time, the breeding grounds
in the far north are so immense, and the position of England
is so admirable for attracting migrants. No doubt the fowl
will become educated to a high pitch of suspicion as they
are more and more sought after, our gunmakers being called
upon to meet the emergency by still more powerful fowling
ordnance; but I do think our inland wildfowl resources
are neglected and jeopardized; with a little attention they
might produce far more profitably. It is too much to expect,
perhaps, that more decoy ponds shall be started for tempting
teal and ducks to breed with us ; but I think we might give
some of our shires a better repute with the wandering
feathered tribes by a little skilful management.

The Wild Birds' Protection Act has certainly been a step
in the right direction, and has been of considerable benefit
to our birds already. The close of the shooting season, April
1st, is rather late, doubtless, for many species of ducks.
Partridges then take wing from the hedgerows and spinneys
silently in couples, and without all that bluster that has
marked their flight since the last broods were disposed of ;
while wild ducks are put up in pairs from the river edges,
and have for a fortnight or so, we suspect, been deliberating
on the momentous nesting question, " Where shall we go ? "
They ought to have been allowed to deliberate in perfect
peace.

Good, too, has been done by the admirable enlightenment
of many noble and extensive landowners, who have listened
to the teachings of Waterton and given our wonderfully rich
bird fauna a home and sanction in their coverts and lakes.

Others, again, who are not amongst the "acre-ocracy,"
love and study the many forms of life along country sides
or sea shores with the amiable generosity and intelligence
of a Gilbert White. The century and its liberal teaching
has even produced a naturalist-gamekeeper or two, and I
have read with wonder and delight in country papers keen

198 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

and intelligent observations from the pens of those who
twenty years ago regarded their mission as simply one of
slaughter. On all such rests the best hope of our rarer
species. If the magnates of the soil, like Lord Clifton, of
Cobham, would issue a general Order of Amnesty, if reeves
and bailiffs would observe, and if naturalists would use their
field-glasses in preference to guns, we might add fifty kinds
of birds to our common species, all of which should delight
many and harm no one.

Flapper shooting (though I have shot flappers enough
myself) is a very doubtful legitimate sport, and it is im-
possible not to suspect it gives a neighbourhood a bad odour
in the minds of the survivors who return, at least for a time,
as salmon do, to their first nurseries, and would, if all were
promising, and there were no unpleasant memories, un-
doubtedly use them again. There are plenty of odd corners
in water meadows and by stream sides where ducks would
stay and breed, if the crow boy with his gun were suppressed,
and they found peace and a little shelter. Such shelter they
might well get from osier beds dotted down, or low waste
lands. These osiers are in themselves a profitable crop — we
imported five thousand tons of them last year from our
sagacious neighbours across the Channel — and they fetch
£8 per ton, nearly three times as much as good potatoes,
and eight times as much as the roots the farmer cultivates
so carefully for his cattle. Moreover, though they grow best
by water, much water is not always essential to them.

It may tempt some attention to this matter if I add
a recent letter of a correspondent in the Field. He writes :
" The osier has been cultivated here in Norfolk with great
convenience and profit for some dozen years. I once got
some shrubs from a well-known nursery, and when unpack-
ing these was struck with the extraordinary toughness of
the " withy " bands with which the bundle was girded. A
set was cut from the least bruised part of the band, and
stuck in between two of the plants it had enclosed. It took

DUCKS. 199

root, grew, and in the next spring, from the four shoots
it had made, four more sets were inserted among the shrubs.
These, too, grew vigorously, and finding, what was not ex-
pected, that osiers will thrive far apart from water (the well
is ninety feet deep, and running water is not within a mile),
sets having been thrust in everywhere among the shrubs,
among the underwood in little plantations, between small
trees in orchards, in spare corners all over the place ; and,
except where gravel comes near the surface, the osier grows
vigorously. But the soil is a good loam on a brick earth.
The advantage of having an ample supply of ' bonds ' to
tie up faggots of all kinds, to bind faggots (when tied) to
rails, so as to make stockyards warm, or fit up temporary
places of shelter, and to fasten up bundles and hampers, is
very great ; many balls of cord are saved. Every February
a man goes round and cuts all the osier stools down to the
stump, and where the neighbouring plants are ready to
occupy all the ground, roots out the osiers which have
served as nurses and temporarily occupied part of the soil.
Besides those used on the place, there are generally four
or five bundles which are sent to the neighbouring basket-
maker, who weaves them into hampers, fowl baskets, and
into what articles of wicker-work are wanted, making two
sizes, so as to use all-sized twigs. The variety has a
yellowish-brown bark, a smooth shining leaf, and is quite
free from any kind of efflorescence. It does not seem to
differ when worked up' from the ordinary appearance of
unpeeled baskets, so probably the osier is the common
variety ; yet it has won itself a local reputation here, and
some twenty or more people have come to ask ' cuttings of
them tough bonds of yourn.' This osier grows, but does not
thrive, on sand, gravel, or a bank; on the flat it grows
vigorously."

Here is a chance whereby enterprise may pay the rent,
utilize waste marshy corners, and afford cover and hiding-
places for several sorts of wildfowl !

200 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

It has been ingeniously suggested that the direction of
the prevailing wind in their remote summer quarters, when
our winter wildfowl rise to go south, may somewhat influence
their abundance or scarcity in certain localities, during the
next four months. This is plausible enough, and might ex-
plain why we have periods of abundance, and others of
scarcity, without much seeming regard to the ruling of the
weather. The whole subject of migration, and the laws
which govern it, are as yet imperfectly understood. They
form a rich field for working naturalists, who would find
much information collected ready for their use.

In conclusion, I think that while our admirable insular
position will always assure us a fair portion on our seas of
whatever game is afoot (or rather on the wing) in Europe,
our inland waterfowl resources yet require to be husbanded,
if the mallard and the teal, with their curious and various
kindred, are not to be banished to remote Irish bogs and
inaccessible highland tarns.

There are other dangers for the ducks on these shores
besides those with which the over-covetous gunner threatens
them. The decoying of the whole tribe is a curious art in
itself.

DUCK DECOYS AND DEVICES.

It is just at the winter season of the year that the wild-
fowler's hopes are at the highest — whether he be the amateur,
floating over the saltings in his new punt, anxious to try the
range and scatter of a big gun from Holland's ; the pro-
fessional with weather-worn, but none the less deadly, gear,
or the fen man of nets and decoys — each and all watch the
weather intently while meditating on the prospects of a
good winter's bag of wild duck, widgeon, teal, whichever
their locality best produces. The puntsman's and shore-
shooter's pastimes are well understood, but there is more
excitement and variety about the decoy man's fashion of

DUCKS. 201

bringing his game to book than many people know. This
is chiefly because decoys and flight ponds are rare, having
ceased to be profitable establishments to the man who works
them for mere money gain in a majority of instances. And
sportsmen of the old school who could take an honest interest
in and enjoy the management and working of a well-fre-
quented pond are, it seems, becoming scarcer and scarcer.
There is not one sporting estate in a hundred where a decoy
>can be seen at the present time, though good and convenient
sheets of water are numerous. Two chief kinds of decoys
are used : the first, for pochard, is called a flight pond, and
has nets fastened to tall, stout poles, twenty-eight or thirty
feet long, round its margin. At the bottom of each pole is
fixed a box filled with sufficiently heavy stones to elevate the
poles and nets the instant an iron peg is withdrawn, which
retains the nets and poles flat upon the reeds, small willow-
boughs, or furze. Within the nets are small pens made of
reeds three or four feet high, for the reception of the birds
that strike against the nets and fall down. Such is the form
and shortness of the wings of the pochard, that they cannot
ascend again from these little enclosures. When all is ready,
the dun-birds are roused from their pond, and as all wild
fowl rise against the wind, the poles in that quarter are un-
pinned, flying up with the nets at the instant the birds begin
to leave the water; they are thus beaten down by 'scores.
This is not, perhaps, a proceeding which gives much oppor-
tunity for the display of great skill or science, certainly
ranking below the decoy proper, wherein wild fowl are
enticed up a covered " fleet," the utmost caution and care
being required from first to last to prevent them from
becoming suspicious or doubling back on their captors.

Mr. Christopher Davies, who has just published a delight-
ful little volume for boys, entitled " Peter Penniless, Game-
keeper and Gentleman," thus happily describes the appearance
of the pond. He says : " They were now in a great bay,
which was as secluded as it is possible to imagine. The

202 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

thick wood overhung the water, then came a bed of reeds^
then a stretch of water-lilies. An arch of bent saplings
spanning a dyke was but the commencement of a sort of
network tunnel, about ten feet high, and eighteen broad at
the mouth, but gradually narrowing and decreasing in height,
until, at the end, it was only about two feet in diameter.
The last ten feet of it were detachable, being formed of net-
work stretched on hoops. The dyke over which the pipe
was erected, was very shallow, and, of course, narrowed as
the network did. It was about ninety yards long, and was
not straight, but curved from the lake to the right for a
quarter of a circle, so that when you were at one end of it,
the other was not visible. There were high banks on each
side, partly natural and partly artificial, and thickly clothed
with underwood, and the outer side of the curve, which was
the one from which the decoy was worked, was screened off
from the pipe by a series of reed screens or fences, placed
diagonally with their broad sides inclined towards the lake
and overlapping each other. Thus, any person approaching
the pipe in the proper manner would be perfectly invisible
from the lake, but would be able to see up the pipe with
ease. The screens were connected with each other by lower
cross fences called ' dog jumps.' "

Ducks of all kinds feed chiefly at night, and fly abroad
for that purpose to pools, marshes, estuaries, and other likely
feeding- places, returning at daybreak to the quietest and
most sequestered lake they can find, where they sleep, rest,
and preen themselves during the day. Now, a decoy-pond is
designed to give them the absolute secrecy, quiet, and rest
which they like. Here they are never disturbed, even by
the destruction of hundreds of their companions, for the
decoying is carried on with so much secrecy and quiet that,
if a score of ducks are having their necks wrung at the
funnel of the pipe, the flock of fowl on the water not a
hundred yards away are blissfully ignorant of anything un-
usual happening. As night falls, the ducks fly away to their

DUCKS, 203

feeding, and this is called "the rising of the decoy." At
dawn they come back again. The pipes or lake must not be
approached in the day time, save for the purpose of working
them, and all the work which has to be done in clearing out
the dyke, repairing the net, laying down food — barley or corn
— in the shallow bay, breaking the ice, and so on, must be
done at night. In. times past, two to three thousand birds
was a good bag for the season from one pond's working, now
fifteen hundred would probably be all that could be looked
for from the same lake, if so much. Now, let us see how the
complicated machine works. We go forth on a clear, fresh
winter afternoon, such as — in spite of the abuse heaped
upon it — the English climate affords us now and again, with
a keeper and an eccentric dog, of foxey yellow hue, silent
and obedient in habit — an unobtrusive but all-important
member of the party. For some distance the path is, perhaps,
over furze-covered downs within sight of the sea, which lies,
a dull leaden sheet, a mile or two away under the low red
winter sun. Then the track enters the woodlands, and leads
by the side of a trickling stream, under hazel bushes, already
tasselled with green catkins in preparation for spring, which
comes nowhere earlier than to these sheltered hollows, and
so -up by mossy slopes and yellow-ferned dells, to where a-
ring of willow trees show their characteristic outline against
the sky. Here the keeper insists upon absolute silence,
perhaps handing the spectator of what is to follow, a smoul-
dering brick of peat upon which he is instructed to breathe,
and so obliterate his personality to the keen-scented wild
fowl, the man taking another himself. Then commences a
cautious approach to where a five-foot fence of reed or wattle
shuts out the lake that lies beyond. This reached in the
most perfect silence, not a twig having been broken under
foot, they make themselves a spy-hole and peep through.
The water, some four or five acres in extent, is dotted all
over with fowl feeding and cleaning themselves, and close by
are "a company" of widgeon, "a lord" of mallards, "a

204 BIliD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

badelynge" of ducks, as old-fashioned fowlers had it, or
probably some of each kind, in a gay and busy crowd fasci-
nating to behold. The wind being fair and a bunch of ducks
conveniently placed for enticing, a wave of the hand sets the
dog at our heels about his duty. He runs round screen ISTo.
1, and hops over the first dog-jump. Immediately he comes
within view of the birds, who, impelled by the curiosity of
their kind, stop feeding, up go their heads, and a hundred
amused and twinkling eyes are bent on the movements of
the strange new creature that has broken in upon their
repose. He disappears and re-appears again, his conspicuous
yellow coat showing up well against the dull, winter-bare
trees and the crimson twigged willow bushes, and presently
with one accord the fowl are after him, streaming up the
" pipe," their heads turning this way and that, right under
the noses of the men watching, who must keep as still as
mice until the last has gone up. This part of the business
requires care, but if successfully managed, the keeper creeps
down to the first screen and shows himself there to the birds
in the tunnel, while he is still hidden from those in the lake.
At once there is a clatter and splash, and, followed by the
men, the birds hurry and scuttle up the tunnel, which narrows
and contracts until the whole two or three dozen birds, it
may be, are crowded in the pouch at the far end, whence
they only emerge to be transferred, dead, to the ready sack.

Such is an exciting scene while it lasts, and more difficult
to bring to a good issue in practice than it looks upon paper.
In managing a " coy," so much depends upon keeping the
pond at the flight season absolutely secluded and quiet.
Anything will get it a bad name with the wildfowl, while,
like Caesar's wife, it should be above suspicion. Prowling
gipsies, or tramps, spoil it for ten days at a time. The
shadow of a hawk, a heron, or a fox, puts the timid mallards
on the wing and sends them elsewhere. Even pike in the
waters are objectionable; they have a decided taste for teal
and young birds, and though the bulk and strength of a

DUCKS. 205

wild drake is proof against any such attacks, yet it is dis-
turbing to its equanimity to see his smaller relations struggle,
and splash and cry out, and then disappear stern foremost.
The keeper, too, must know all about the right winds and
weather, and something of the curious and punctual habits
of the birds, whence they come, and when they are to be
expected. Pochards, for instance, he will never try to
capture in his long tunnel, for they invariably rise and fly
back when alarmed, and a few birds escaping like this will
spread the news. He must be clever in the feeding and
management of the tame decoy birds, which by swimming
about at all times in the mouth of the drains, bring the wild
ones down as they pass overhead during their migration,
and also unremitting in his guardianship of the place, and
ready to turn out at two or three o'clock, it may be, in the
cold winter mornings when the flight is on, to clear the
channels, and break up ice formed round them. Perhaps
the trouble attending their proper upkeep, the modern
scarcity of ducks in paying numbers since the fens and
moorlands have been drained, or a change of fashion, is
responsible for the decrease in numbers of the ponds formed
for this method of taking ducks. Probably in all the eastern
counties there are not more than four or five actually work-
ing decoys, and Sir Ralph Payne- Gall wey, in his " Wild-
fowler in Ireland," says he only knows of three working in
that country, viz. Mr. Longfield's, at Loiigueville ; Lord
Desart's, in Kilkenny ; and Mr. Webber's, at Athy.

As to their origin, it is difficult to speak for certain.
Camden says that 3000 ducks were sometimes driven into a
single net at once. Willoughby also, speaking of Deeping
Fen, declares that as many as 400 boats were employed, and
that 4000 mallards have been taken in one driving. All this
seems to point to the practice of driving young or moulting
birds into a funnel-shaped net, somewhat like a modern
decoy — a practice formerly carried to such an excess that an
Act of Parliament had to be passed to suppress it. Spelman

206 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

says, that Sir William Woodhouse, who lived in the reign of
James I., made amongst us (primum apud nos institutit) the
first decoy for ducks (decipulum anatarium), called by the
foreign name of " a koye," apparently introducing a new-
word ; and although he may not have actually been the first
to take ducks by means of nets artificially arranged for that
purpose in the form of a modern decoy, it is highly probable
that he did introduce some important improvements, possibly
the use of decoy ducks and dogs, of both of which he speaks.
Mr. Thomas Wise, in " A History of Paganism in Caledonia,"
tells us that decoy birds for taking ducks were used by the
most ancient tribes of the Pictish race, but he says nothing
of the method.

The wild duck, in its many species, lends itself to the
ingenious devices of many fowlers, who pursue and entrap it
remorselessly, whether they be fur-wrapped Esquimaux 011
the Greenland Fjelds, wandering Tartars, mild but cunning
Hindoos, gentle and persevering children of the Flowery
Land, or, it is safe to say, the " sportsmen " of any other
nation under the sun.

Speaking of the Chinese recalls one picturesque method
they have of taking the beautiful painted teal of their wood-
land lakes. It is an aristocratic pastime, and requires
specially prepared canals and embankments for its enjoy-
ment. The gardens surrounding the palaces and great
houses are always well watered by numbers of small streams,
natural or artificial. Those which it is intended to devote to
duck hunting are led by very tortuous courses through deep
channels, with almost perpendicular sides, hither and thither
amongst the mulberries and crimson-flowered rhododendrons
of the extensive gardens. Ducks of several varieties — every-
where numerous in China — frequent these winding water-
courses in considerable numbers, and when the mandarin or
his high official determine on a teal catching expedition they
go forth each armed with a thirty-foot bamboo, at the end of
which is a stout and deep net. With these they cautiously

DUCKS. 207

approach the streams, and owing to the high banks are able
to actually overlook the water before the ducks are aware of
their presence. The astonished birds then spring up fast
enough in a brilliantly coloured cloud ; but the Celestials are
ready for them, and as the gigantic " butterflies " top the
grass and flowers the nets are brought into play, and half-a-
dozen or more out of each school are enclosed and brought
struggling to the ground.

The purpose of leading the streams in winding courses is
in order that an attack on the ducks in one reach of water
may not disturb those out of sight round the bend in the
next. A curious scene it must be : the quaint and rich silk
dresses of the men, bright sunshine on flowering shrubs, and
the gay teal in their regal livery dodging the long nets — an
admirable suggestion for a new series of "willow-pattern"
plates.

Another method, slightly different in its earlier stages,
but ending in the same way, has been mentioned by Mr.
J. E. Harting. He says : " During the winter months many
kinds of waterfowl resort to the inland pools which at the
other seasons of the year keep to the sea or mouths of rivers.
On these pools the fowls are allured — by food and decoy
ducks — into so-called pitfalls, covered with rushes or fine
nets, on either side of w^hich are posted the beaters and
sportsmen. As soon as a sufficient number of ducks have
been allured into these decoys, they are made to rise by a
loud noise, and the sportsmen take them with a sort of
strong butterfly net. Those that escape are pursued by the
hawks."

This is all very well for those who look chiefly to amuse-
ment, but the professional wildfowler has to adopt more
wholesale methods. He resorts to netting and poisoning ;
the latter method is applied as follows : Bice is steeped in a
decoction of coculus indicus, and then exposed where nume-
rous ducks, etc., are likely to come. The next day the dead
bodies are collected and sent to market. I never heard of

208 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

anybody suffering any ill effects from, this plan, which seems
rather hazardous. The net used for trapping is usually a
large pulling-over one, like those in use by the bird-catchers
in the London suburbs. As it is used a long distance from
the shore, another has to be sunk at the spot to prevent the
ducks getting away by diving. The shallow water of the
lagoons, nearly always seven feet in depth, affords facilities
for fixing the nets, and live decoys are pegged down round
them ; the pull is up to three hundred yards in length, and
is worked from boats.

Not only in the land of pigtails, but all over Asia, the
duck tribe migrate at various seasons, and are taken in
thousands. Mr. W. W. MacNair, who went in disguise
through Kafiristan, a country between the Hindu Kush and
Kunar ranges on the north-eastern side of Afghanistan, as
yet sealed to Europeans, speaking of the Bogosta valley,
says : " Between Daroshp and Gobor I noticed several
detached oval ponds, evidently artificial, which I was told
were constructed for catching wild geese and ducks during*
their annual flight to India, just before the winter sets in,
about the middle of October. The plan adopted, though
rude, is unique in its way, and is this. By the aid of narrow
dug trenches, water from the running stream is let into the
ponds and turned off when full ; the pond is surrounded by
a stone wall high enough to allow a man, when crouching, to
be unobserved ; over and across one-half or less of this pond
a rough trellis work of thin willow branches is put up ; the
birds on alighting are gradually driven under this canopy,
and a sudden rush is made by those on the watch. Hundreds
in this manner are daily caught during" the season. The
flesh is eaten, and from the down on their breasts coarse
overcoats and gloves are made, known as margaloon"

Again, on the lakes in the Cabul highlands, in which,
during the rains, these birds abound, the natives adopt
another ingenious plan for their capture. A small hut,
covered with reeds and boughs of trees, is erected over

TEE DUCKS. 209

a water channel that leads off the water into the adjacent
country. After dark, when the ducks are floating about in
the careless security of sleep, the trappers enter the hut, and
opening a sluice gate, strike a light inside their watch-tower,
and await the arrival of the ducks, which are soon carried,
by the newly produced current into the channel over which
the hut is built. They enter through a narrow opening,
and are seized with ready hands, and made lawful food by
having their throats cut. In this manner a couple of men
can easily secure from one hundred and fifty to two hundred
ducks in a single night.

Not more than a month or two ago, the Sporting and
Dramatic News had some sketches showing a common Indian
trapper's dodge. They prepare a number of calabashes, from
rind of the melon or gourd, and keep them floating up and
down the lakes, on which swarm innumerable quantities of
wild duck. From habit, the birds soon come to take no
notice of the calabashes. The Indian, observing this, then
prepares a calabash in which he cuts holes for seeing and
breathing, and places it over his head. With this, and a belt
round his waist, he starts on his duck-catching expedition.
He is almost as used to the water as the prey he is in quest
of, easily stealing quietly towards the flock, and when
within an arm's length of a duck catching it by the legs,
and before it has time to utter a solitary " quack " he whips
it under the surface, and hangs it to the belt, very speedily
filled in this manner. Our journal, unless I am mistaken,
mentioned this practice as being in vogue in Yorkshire ; and
in fact it is curiously widespread.

On one part of the American coast there is a similar
expedient practised, only that in this instance the headpiece
is a cap of rushes — a number of them being always left
floating about on the surface of the water to accustom the
fowl to the objects, otherwise the process of capture is just
the same as that detailed above.

It is also known in China, and Mr. Thomas Wise asserts,

p

210 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

in " A History of Paganism in Scotland," its use in the
ancient Pictish Kingdom.

Across the water, in France, it was stated lately, in the
Shooting Times, a clever and artistic method of taking black
duck is practised, which might be adopted with success in
other regions besides the neighbourhood of Cape Griz-nez,
its chief home. The quarry is captured in this manner:
At low water, or very near it,, the fishermen, who chiefly use
this method during their enforced inactivity in winter, go
down to the sandy flats, and there selecting one of those beds
of shell fish which must be familiar to all who have any
experience of shore shooting, they drive a number of stakes
into the mud, each stake being about three feet long and
standing clear of the " flats," about two feet. To the tops of
these, which stand in an oval shape and parallel to the
coast, is stretched a long, large, fine-meshed net, as tight
as it will go, and bound to the stakes by cords. To seaward
of this a narrow, upright wall of net is also fixed in a crescent
shape, its purpose merely being to act as a stop net, and to
prevent the floating out to deep water of any dead ducks
which may come loose from the main net. The latter, it
will be noted, is stretched horizontally over a considerable
space of the birds' choicest feeding ground. Matters having
been thus arranged, the men return to their huts. While
they smoke and amuse themselves the tide comes in, and
with it come the black duck eager for food, and diving
continually as the shore is neared. Little by little they
approach the fatal spot, and the water now being two feet
above the snares no harm is dreamt of. They swim and dive
this way and that till at last the toil is under them. The
leader has perhaps brought up a delicate morsel from the
very limit of safety outside the net, and swallows it on
the surface before his admiring companions. He prepares
for another dive, but now the tide has drifted him over the
meshes. Down goes his head, and with a whisk the tail
disappears. He plunges under, and in less time than it

THE DUCKS. 211

takes to write is held firmly below by the strings into which
he has thrust his neck. His companions note the prolonged
dive, and, probably thinking he is having an especially good
time of it, follow him, head after head being driven through
the small but elastic meshes of the net, whence there is no
return ; and the unfortunate birds are held thus until they
are drowned. Any which wash out as the tide recedes are
caught by the crescent-like wall whose top is only just below
high- water mark, or the fishermen come down to the beach
with their poodles, and send them in after any ducks which
may be floating away to sea. In this manner considerable
numbers of birds are taken; but the profit is small, the
victims selling for as little as fivepence apiece on account of
their fishy taste and rankness. The black duck, it may be
remarked, is the only form of flesh allowed to be eaten on
fast days by the See of Rome, a curious bit of Pontifical
irony, since this single exception is of a kind too rank to be
touched by any but the very poor.

Sometimes ponds and lakes patronized by water-fowl will
be unapproachable to the shooter for want of cover ; he may
nevertheless be able to obtain a few brace by one of the
following methods. Let him take some good strong rabbit
traps, and pour melted pitch on the plates. Before the
pitch has time to cool, sprinkle on it several grains of barley.
Choose a moonlight night for the experiment, and hang the
traps, duly set on the side of the pond (within a few inches
of the water) opposite the moon, so that her rays fall well
on the pitched plates, which will glitter, and render the
barley clearly visible to the ducks as they swim about the
pond. Hang the traps on short pegs, so that when one of
them is sprung by a duck "bibbling" against the barley,
it may fall into the water, carrying the unfortunate drake
with it ; and if the trap be a heavy one, and the water deep
enough, there will be little or no spluttering to alarm the
other birds. I have never tried this plan, and therefore
cannot speak personally as to its efficacy, but an old boatman
assured me he had often done it successfully.

212 EIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

That boatman was a poacher, whatever he may have
thought of himself ; and perhaps it may be as well after this
instance of treacherous ingenuity, to turn to an honester
theme and outline a rough day's sport on the Scotch border
fells and sea-shore, looking for our game honestly, and
bringing it to bay with " straight powder " and in open day-
light, in all the "pride and circumstance " of straightforward
sports-craft !

WINTER SHOOTING IN THE HIGHLANDS.

" Eight o'clock, sir ! " says my faithful henchman, coming
into my room with the hot water, adding, in answer to my
sleepy inquiries, that " it's a fine morning, but freezing hard."
Of the latter fact I have an instinctive perception in spite of
the snugness of my retreat ; that sort of feeling which warns
one how unpleasant it will be to get up when the operation
becomes absolutely necessary and can be put off no longer.
On this occasion the subject seemed to require special con-
sideration, the pros and cons of immediate rising being
weighed with much deliberation. To begin with, the
advantage of staying where I was appeared too obvious for
a doubt. On the other hand, the first gong had sounded
twenty minutes ago, so breakfast must be ready ; possibly my
hostess was already down, and, assisted by her three delightful
daughters, presiding behind the silvery bulwarks of steaming
coffee-pots and urns. I even fancied I could catch a faint
whiff of all sorts of good provender on its way from the
kitchen regions, and this fact was conclusive. Without
venturing to think more on the subject, I muttered a once,
twice, and away, and found myself safely standing on the
floor. To draw up the blinds was the first operation, and
there lay as wonderful a stretch of ice-bound country as any
I have ever come across. The wild highlands of the
western Scottish coast, and such it was that lay before me,

THE DUCKS. 213

are one thing in the summer, but quite another in the winter.
To most they are only known when the land swarms with
tourists, when every shooting lodge is occupied to over-
flowing from kitchen to garret, and gay picnic parties hold
high frolic in each glen far and near. At that time the
country is knee-deep in purple heather, the guns of the
shooters are echoed on every side, and the grouse, doubtless
cursing the inundation of sportsmen with modern fashions,
long once more for the comparative peace enjoyed by their
primogenitor, who had nothing to fear but his natural foes
the hawks and the flintlocks of the highland chief's foresters.
Every brook and tarn in June is threshed by lines of
enthusiastic fishers; the post comes twice a day; smart
equipages imported from the Lowlands dash about the
country roads; and Scotland then is popular, wealthy,
and overrun. Nearly all in these days of cheap tours know
this phase of the matter, but when the first frost takes the
colour out of the heather-bells, and the rowan-berries are at
their brightest scarlet, a great change comes upon the face
of the land. At the first pelting hailstorm from the north-
ward darkening the faces of the lochs and filling the higher
mountain gulleys with whiteness, the fine-weather invaders
take the hint, the lodges are deserted, peers and commoners
flit southward, Government itself makes note of the altered
circumstances, and posts are reduced to one per day or less,
hotels close their hospitable doors, and all the land sinks
into repose, the scattered permanent inhabitants and many-
ancestored lairds, with patriotism enough to stick by their
acres all the year round, waking one day to find themselves
alone and winter palpably upon them.

Such, but briefer, as befitted the coldness of my position
before the window-panes, were my meditations while con-
templating a wide stretch of snowy hills on the first morning
of a midwinter visit to an old Scotch mansion, a visit to be
varied by some rough sport and skating if the frost held.

However, it won't do to keep breakfast waiting any

214 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

longer, so down I go, and am soon seated at a table decked
with snowy napery and crowded with savoury comforts for
hungry men, very welcome in such weather as this. At
the head presides the hostess, and on either side are her
three daughters, all expert riders and skaters, each capable
of fishing two miles of river in good fashion, or bringing
down their brace of grouse, " when papa shoots the moor
alone," and yet possessing all those gentle graces that are
the boast of their unmatched countrywomen. The laird
comes in directly. He has been out to see his thermometers,
of which three or four stand at various points of vantage,
and rubs his hands and seems highly delighted as he reports
fourteen degrees of frost during the night, an announcement
which elicits much applause, as of course we are all keen
" curlers " here, and our hopes of a good season for that
ancient game have been rising higher and higher lately.
Yet neither curling nor skating were oar ambitions on this
particular day, which was to be devoted to a raid upon
numerous flocks of wildfowl that the cold weather had
driven to a chain of neighbouring lochs and a marshy estuary
through which the river emptying them ran into a land-
surrounded arm of the sea.

Breakfast over, there was soon plenty of bustle in the
gun-room, where a sturdy Gael was busy filling cartridge-
cases and slinging guns to their straps. In rough shooting
of this sort, and more particularly in cold weather, a gun
that cannot be hung over the shoulder when there is no
chance of a shot, is anything but a pleasant companion.
Then an emissary from the kitchen regions appeared with
cook's compliments and a suggestive luncheon-basket. This
Donald shouldered, together with a bundle of wraps, and,
taking our own guns and cartridge-bags, the laird and myself
waved a farewell to the bright group in the porch, and
marched down the drive to where a dogcart was in waiting
outside the big gates.

What a happy experience a fine winter's day is to those

TEE DUCKS. 215

blessed with well-strung nerves and a healthy appreciation
of the beautiful ! A comfortable breakfast and a mild cigar
glowing with seductive warmth under the observer's nose
are important concomitants for due enjoyment of the scene !
For my part, fresh from the tropics, in whose gorgeousness
familiarity has bred a certain distrust, a snowy landscape
and a frosty morning are full of quiet charms. The feet
make no noise upon the soft carpet of snow, which, as dry as
the sand of the desert, falls like dust from the shoes at every
step, and goes flying in minature siroccos across the open
plains of the lawns and carriage drives, piling itself up
against the trunks of trees and roots of shrubs, and scooping
hollows to leeward of them, just as the fresh northern air
drives it. The boughs of the evergreens are loaded down to
the ground with their white burdens, and if by chance a
blackbird, scared from his feast of yew- berries by approaching
figures, breaks away with a resounding chuckle, he causes a
whole avalanche of glittering crystals to fall from the shaken
boughs behind him. But in general everything is very
silent; the birds are too much occupied in searching for food
even to sing if they had a cause, and in the farmyards the
sheep and kine stand knee-deep in snow and straw, their
whole attention taken up with the fragrant hay being liberally
dealt out by that leather-legginged shepherd, who stops his
work for a moment to touch his cap as the master and his
guest pass. Truly the cold, white reign of winter is not with-
out a sweetness of its own !

A sharp spin of a couple of miles brought us in sight of
a boathouse nestling amongst birches at the head of a long
streak of pale water. The loch was shut in by high hills on
one side and stretches of flatter ground on the other, more
level only by comparison, for it was marsh and bog plenti-
fully supplied with deep peat holes and crevices broad enough
to swallow a Highland cow, like the giant in the fairy story,
"horns and all." Strange things are found in these steep-
sided cavities. I have myself rescued from one such trap

216 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

an imprisoned sheep suffering the last stages of exhaustion
and starvation, while a curious story exists of a brood of
half -grown flappers having been found in another, which
they had entered along with their mother when very small,
and, not possessing her powers of flight, had been unable to
leave it ; a little water in one corner and a few casual
insects, we must suppose, supporting life in this novel open-
air pen. For this region of dyke and pit we were soon em-
barked in a regular Highland skiff, impelled by the keeper's
sturdy arms (the gillie who cannot row and doesn't look
upon the water as a legitimate part of his territory is of
little use on this side of the country) ; ten minutes and the
peat banks of the opposite shore are over our prow, the bare
wiry stems of the heather making tracery against the sky
and looking like cotton plants in pod, with their weight of
snow and rime. Donald shoves our bows between two rocks
and deftly scrambles ashore with the rope to make it fast ;
but almost immediately crouches down, and we hear the
mellow quack of a mallard which rises through the air from
a pool within easy shot, but goes away unhurt, as, of course,
we are not loaded. This quickens our expectations of sport,
and we are soon landed, collars up, guns under arms, and
ready for the march.

A snipe is the first bird to fall to the laird's gun, another
getting up to the shot for me and dropping to the right-hand
barrel. This is decidedly cheering, and we plod along
enthusiastically over the crisp herbage, the dog sniffing about
ahead, but being rather heavily handicapped by the stiff
going for a time until we reach better ground. Some of the
long-bills rise wild at a couple of hundred yards or more from
us and sweep away to the southward like brown leaves in
a gale, picking up as they go others of their species, and
this irritates my companion, who scolds " Snap " for what
is not his fault ; but we get chances now and again which
throw a rosier light over the proceedings.

An hour's trudge brings us to the foot of the first sheet

THE DUCKS. 217

of water, with four and a half brace of snipe to our credit.
There we find Donald again reposing against a rock, the
smoke ascending in ripples from his pipe, and the boat
quietly secured to a convenient alder at his feet. Together
we walk down the opposite banks of the brook running to
the next " lynn." Pleasant enough in the summer time,
when its deep pools hold excellent trout, it now looks icy
cold, and we wonder at the taste of a pair of water-ouzels,
who stand on the stones bobbing their tails, or skim away
down stream at our approach, in remaining faithful all the
year round to such a desolate region. Nothing rewards us
here until the far end is reached. At that spot is a bit
of level ground, sometimes submerged by floods, and now
a chequered surface of grassy " hassocks," surrounded by
patches of ice and snow. No sooner do we turn the flank
of a protecting spur and come upon this favoured region,
all beglittered in the sunlight with icicles and frost, than
a flock of teal spring from their cover and wheel into the

air in front. H , whose motto for to-day is certainly

"ready, ay, ready," takes them "on the hop," and grasses
one in good style. My first chance is at a "skyer," who
doubles up and comes down back foremost forty yards
distant, and my second barrel wings another lightly. We
pick up the slain, their beautiful plumage contrasting won-
derfully with the snow on which they lie, and then the
dog goes for the wounded bird, recovering it after a chase
over crackling ice, hardly stout enough to bear a mouse's
weight, which lets him into some coldish water, if we may
judge by the vigorous shake he gives himself subsequently.
There is, to me, no water-bird like the teal for game quali-
ties ; he has " all the instincts of a gentleman ; " powerful
on the wing and sharp in his rise, he is up and away with
half the fuss of any other duck, yet a light touch stops him,
and unhit he often has the consideration to come round
again after a shot if the sportsman keeps quiet. This latter
quality was not illustrated by our teal to-day, so we beat

218 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

down the water, disturbing some widgeon which could not
be reached, and picking up three more snipe from a bed
of reeds, a moor-hen, and a couple of wild ducks, all of
which trophies took their way to the sad republic of the
gamebag consecutively.

And then we lunched; the short winter day of high
latitudes almost spent, and a choice bit of ground for
"cock" yet to be searched. We took our meal under the
lichened shelter of some birches, weather-beaten and dwarfed
by repeated gales blowing down the neighbouring corrie.
At our feet sparkled a fire of pine branches drawn from
a dry corner under that rock which served us as a comfort-
able seat and table when a cushion from the trap that had
brought along our provender was placed across it. The cold
game pie was both juicy and tender; the "October brew"
from a stone jug was amber clear, and as sparkling as Moet's
best, and an inch of ripe and crumbling Stilton with a
" short " sip of Glenlivet put the finishing touches to the
sufficient if frugal refreshment.

It took us about as long as our cigars lasted to follow
the smooth course of a roadway up a ridge, across its brow,
and down the opposite glacis. From the top we saw the
wide plain of the " mournful and misty Atlantic " looking
black as ink amongst the framing of snowy hills on every
side, but under us the warmer shelter of sloping plantations
of larch and holly, cat up with water channels and dotted
everywhere by dark towering heads of pines and strong
young spruces.

There was little time to spare, so a couple of spaniels
that arrived in charge of a boy from the keeper's cottage
hard by were turned in, and soon the ball was going merrily
again as they quartered the cover scientifically, and we
walked silently behind down the parallel spinneys. The
rabbits alone were numerous enough to have employed half
a dozen guns, and flashed hither and thither in tempting
style, a dozen or two paying the penalty of their rashness.

TEE DUCKS. 219

As for the woodcock, on whose behalf the expedition
had been undertaken, there were not enough guns to do
them justice. We wanted some outside the copse to inter-
view Scolopax rusticula as he flitted from one shelter to
another ; but still we got an occasional glimpse at a retiring
form clad in autumn russet, and in the majority of cases,
if the chance was anything like fair, the bird was accounted
for with little delay. A lordly cock pheasant rose near the
laird, and was skilfully grassed by him ere the noisy bird
had topped the neighbouring oak trees. Directly after this
1 managed to stop off my left shoulder a hare which was
apparently starting for a journey to the other end of the
kingdom, just as I was in the agonies of struggling through
a holly hedge.

This lent variety to the bag, and was the last shot of
a pleasant, if not very productive, day. We walked to the
lodge, whose gates opened upon the high road, and, having
warmed ourselves at the gallant blaze burning in the open
hearth, were about to mount the dogcart for home, when
there came the sound of bells outside, and a minute after in
rushed Miss Mary. " Oh, papa ! " she said to the laird,
" you must forgive me for coming without asking you, but
it is going to be such a beautiful night, and Madge and
I couldn't resist the temptation of bringing the sledge for
you instead of allowing you to drive home in the stupid old
dogcart outside ! "

The culprits were forgiven, and soon my entertainer was
seated in front of a smart Canadian sledge, one of his
daughters beside him, while I, having refused to take the
reins, occupied a back seat with the other young lady, an
arrangement much to my satisfaction, since I was allowed
to light a meerschaum and keep my hands under cover of
the heavy fur rug.

Sardanapalus offered half a year's revenue for a new
pleasure ! Did he ever try sleighing on a moonlight night ?
It is most delightful and novel. Not a sound broke the

220 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

stillness as we sped along but the thin tinkle of silver bells
on the leader's harness (for we drove tandem), he sniffing
the fresh, cold air, and tossing about his head in wonder
at the unusual pathway. Our runners passed over the dry
surface of frozen snow with perhaps the faintest of murmurs,
such as the ripples of a tideway make against the sides of
a motionless vessel, but all else was hushed. At times we
were floating down narrow gulleys between overhanging
rocks where a streamlet, too lively to freeze, ran by the road-
side, its course overreached with white crystals, and mean-
dering through caverns and wonderful palaces of icicles and
frosted herbage. All around nature was shrouded in white,
on which the brilliant moon shone, and some of the bigger
stars twinkled with unusual lustre in the deep blue vault of
the sky. Again we would approach the outskirts of a vast
pine forest, and, plunging in, leave the light behind, taking our
way along with a strange association of speed and silence
until we could almost fancy we were disembodied and going
to some Walpurgis revels ! " Do you think there are any
wolves left in England now ? " inquires my companion in
a hushed voice, glancing round at the sombre aisles of the
dimly seen woods, where disjointed fragments of old moun-
tains take strange forms as rays of moonlight steal down
here and there to light them.

I assure her there is nothing more wolfy in the neighbour-
hood than the skins of a couple of those animals forming the
rug that wraps us both, but she is very silent until we pass
into the moonlight again. Then comes the run home along
the other side of the valley, the lights of the hall twinkling
out in the darkness ; the arrival and confiding of the steam-
ing horses to the ready stable-boys, and we peel off our furs
and wraps to follow the genial old laird into the dining-room,
where he forthwith concocts with due solemnity a brew
of hot punch in an ancient wassail-bowl, of which we all
taste, and so for the fragrant " half-pipe," and to well-earned
rest.

( 221 )

CHAPTER IX.
SEA FOWL.

FRIENDS OR FOES.

HAS the Sea Birds' Preservation Act failed by over success-
fulness or by under; are we unduly protecting the gulls
and guillemots to the ruin of our coast fisheries ; or are we
negligent and insensible to the exterminating ravages of
cockney sportsmen and plumesters ? Such questions as these
are frequently asked and answered with every variety of
conviction and logic. My own opinion, I may say at once,
is that over preservation of the bird life of the sea-shore and
marsh flats is simply and utterly impossible. If we were
to infence our seafowl with legislative protection, until they
were as common as sparrows in a winter stackyard, I do
not believe the price of herrings or sprats would go up
a farthing a " last " from this cause. That thousands of fish
might daily go down these myriad hungry maws is quite
certain ; but against this there is the fact, never sufficiently
recognized, that in the economy of such things as the herring
shoals, it is space and opportunity alone which limit their
reproduction and increase. The onslaught of a hundred
thousand solan geese and puffins could be repaired by the
fertility of a few score female herrings, if Nature found there
was sea room and food sufficient for them. Of this we are
as confident as that Providence understand such matters as
well — if not better — than the town council of Little Pedling-
ton-by-the-Sea.

222 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

I myself have a very certain admiration for the herring ;
the salmon may be the king of fish, and the pink-fleshed
loch trout of Scotland make epicurean mouths water at the
antipodes ; the white fillets of sole may be more aristocratic,
and the creaminess of a seasonable turbet unique, but none
of these have anything like the savour of the necessary,
harmless bloater ! He is at the bottom of the scale in
humility and consideration, yet surely a long way from the
last in all the qualities that could endear him to the hungry
and frugal. If it was a case of kittiwakes or red-herring,
then patriotism, as well as the remembrance of a score of
simple meals in quiet hostelries, and the snug parlours of
water-side inns, would cast judgment in favour of the latter.
But matters have not come to this pass ; the world is quite
big enough for fish and feathers, and this in spite of an
avaricious commerce or the mercantile greed of some few
long shoresmen, who take an undoubtedly heavy toll of the
harvest of the sea.

That the seafowl do a scarcely appreciable amount of
harm from a utilitarian point of view is not difficult to
demonstrate to an open mind. The chief culprits accused
of voracious and misdirected appetites are the common
gull, black-headed gull, herring gull, great black-backed
gull, cormorant, green cormorant, gannet or solan goose,
guillemot, puffin, razor-bill, northern diver.

Besides these there are some culprits in a lesser degree,
or whose interference is so occasional as to be hardly worth
considering. There are rarer gulls than the five mentioned
that now and then mix with the flights and feed amongst
them; the ducks of a dozen species are also omitted, as,
though many of them are at sea all day, they are vegetable
feeders. The same applies to geese and swans ; and god wits,
sandpipers, and plovers, are harmless dabblers in back waters
and creeks, where they thin out the small Crustacea and
shrimps.

The main charge against all these birds is, of course,

SEA FOWL. 223

that of diminishing national supplies of food by pillaging
the herring sboals and schools of edible fish. It must be
remembered, however, that gulls, at all events, are no divers,
and the herring usually lie a fathom or so under the surface.
A kittiwake, or " cobb," has to take what he can glean
on the surface ; he will swoop round and round a turn or
two in the sky and drop down with astonishing precision
and exactness on anything he cares to pick up, but he does
not go under, and rides in the hollows of the waves as lightly
as a cork. His food is flotsam and jetsam — the off- washings
of the shore and all the disjecta of the sea bottoms, the soft
shelled crabs that come to the top, the sickly or wounded
fish, and occasionally some of the small fry the observant
boatman will have noticed basking in the tepid water
shining under a summer sun, or flashing into the air and
daylight as some " ravening salt sea shark," some great
bass or whiting of the weedy ledges, runs amuck through
their close-packed columns and drives them up. Indeed,
in helping themselves to the young of these same whiting,
the teeming " haddies " of the Scotch estuaries, the gulls do
immense service, for big fish are to little fish far worse foes
than anything wearing feathers.

The Yorkshire cragsmen who live amongst the cliffs
all the time the birds are breeding and have daily experience
of their housekeeping arrangements, describe the fish remains
littering the cliff-shelves as chiefly those of "base" fish,
sand eels, gobbies, wrasse, and the like. Herrings, of course,
in any condition were absent. " Those persons who write so
glibly on the subject of the destruction of fish by sea birds,"
writes the Rev. F. 0. Morris to the Yorkshire Gazette, "forget
that long before guns were invented the birds must have
had it all their own way on the cliffs of our coast all round
these islands ; and how was it then they did not exterminate
the fish in ages long ago, instead of their increasing in the
way they have done ? " According to the Rev. Barnes
Lawrence, it is " not so much a question of how much the

224 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

gulls eat, or how many birds there are to eat the fish, but
what fish they eat, and what other fish have a better chance
in consequence."

The economy of Nature is a mosaic from which the
absence of a single part loosens all the neighbouring struc-
ture. Were there no check upon the whiting and such other
destructive fish, supplied by the gulls who feed amongst
their young, then these might play havoc in turn with the
herrings. Nor does this argument clash with that of the
immense prolificness of food fishes, because man, demanding
an undoubtedly heavy toll of good fish, and not paying an
equivalent amount of attention to their enemies, these foes
must in turn be kept in place by some means such as the
predatory birds supply.

Mr. Morris, the well-known author of " A History of
British Birds," a charming and invaluable work, has lately
made some calculations regarding the harm which the
wanton slaughter of sea birds effects, and though his deduc-
tions lay him open, I fear, like all such attempts, to hostile
criticism, they are curious and interesting. Having sum-
marized the number of gulls killed in a season along the
Yorkshire coasts alone, he adds : " If we carry on our
calculation still further, say, if each bird dives nine times
per hour (I believe eleven is the usual number) and catches
three whiting per hour, or one in three dives, we have : —

975 birds killed daily for " pleasure."

109 „ average for professional bird killers.

1,084 killed or wounded daily.
3 whiting.

3,352 per hour.

12 (say 12 hours per day diving for food).

39,024 whiting destroyed per day.
110 days.

4,292,640 whiting destroyed in the breeding season.
Mackerel, herring, sprat, and haddock are more par-

SEA FOWL. 225

ticularly regarded as " food fish," on which the young of
whiting feed. And allowing each whiting to eat 200 " food
fish " during the 110 days, or while the birds are with us, we
find:—

4,292,640
200

98,528,000 " food fish " lost by the destruction of birds in 110 days.

This deduction of nearly one hundred million herrings shot
away with the lives of the JcittiwaJces and gulls every season,
under one line of cliffs alone, is a rough, unscientific perhaps,
but nevertheless effective popular argument for the good
cause, and should make the owners of the Sarah Jane, the
Two Brothers, and every other North Sea yawlsman rub their
chins reflectively and reconsider their ill-will towards the
birds, or their willingness to show the gentlemen of the
Sheffield furnaces and the Midland cotton mills the breeding-
places of the fair 'white fowl that supply the life and pleasure
of the great north seas.

Nor are the fishermen the only class who reap some
benefit from these tenants of the crags. Gulls wander in-
land, especially in stormy weather, and though never so
omnipresent as rooks and starlings, nor so keen in the
farmer's service, yet they do him some good work such as
one of Mr. Morris's correspondents points out. He writes :
" I am game watcher to Lord Londesborough, and have been
for over twenty years in his lordship's service, and I have
seen a good deal of destruction of sea-birds, and have lived
in the neighbourhood the greater part of my life, and shall
be very glad to give you all the information I can, respecting
the destruction of sea-birds. I think it would be a very good
thing to prolong the preservation from the 1st of August to
the 1st of September, and I consider the month of August
is the very worst month in the year for the destruction of
sea-birds, for the greatest part of the young are helpless in
that month. After there has been a party of shooters, the

Q

226 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

beach and the cliffs are strewed with young ones. I fell in
with a party one day myself who had been shooting. They
had caught four young guillemots alive, and the poor little
things were yelping themselves to death all the way they
went. They had got one kittiwake with a broken wing, and
were carrying it with the other wing. I asked them what
they were going to do with them, and they said they were
going to take them home with them, and turn them into the
garden. If that is not cruelty to sea-birds, I do not know
what is. I think it is a very great shame to shoot gulls and
kitti wakes at all, for they are the best friends the farmers
have, for they never touch a grain of corn at any time of the
season. I think I need not confine myself to the farmers
only, but I might say the country at large, for all the trades
are upholden by the farmers. Forty years ago we never had
any grubbed land in this neighbourhood, when we had thou-
sands more gulls and kittiwakes than we have now. They
used to follow the plough by hundreds ; the ploughboy could
turn round with a stick and hit them ; now he may plough
for days, and never see one near at hand, and we have very
little land in the neighbourhood but what is infested with
grubs. There was a gentleman farmer in Buckton some
years ago, who shot a gull, and he said he was fit to cry when
he saw what a friend he had shot, for when it fell it threw up
a quantity of nothing but grubs and worms, and he vowed
on that day that he would never shoot another as long as he
lived. Some people say that they are very destructive amongst
fish, but I think what they get is a useless kind of fish, for
what the climber has brought up to me are almost as much
in the shape of a worm as a fish. I must admit that they
will want a great quantity of food of some kind, as many of
them never feed on the land ; but forty or fifty years ago,
when we had thousands more sea-birds than we have now,
I have taken tons of fish from Bridlington to Hull at sixpence
per stone."

Several species build on the inland moors and wastes, and

SEA FOWL. 227

then the jealous eyes of the keeper sees first-class misde-
meanants in them. One declares that a big nesting gull will
quarter the hill-side for young game like a hen-harrier on
the marsh lands. I must acknowledge in reply to this that
if I were a young grouse poult, with a wiry hank of knotgrass
by some mischance "clove hitched" round my leg — my
comrades, too, over the brow of the hill — then the wide
pinions and the keen brown eyes backed by the remorseless
bill of a big gull would not be the sight I should best
enjoy seeing to windward ! But these gulls hunt the moor
sides for mice, frogs, lizards, and so on ; they keep chiefly to
the parts of the heath which grouse and blackgame avoid,
and I do not think a colony of them would do any serious
mischief to a moor on which the game was healthy and not
overcrowded, — the latter a condition of affairs which Nature
abhors and takes the first means at hand to mend.

As for the rest of the list of sea fowl generally regarded
with hostility by some folk or other, there are amongst them
birds which undoubtedly sympathize with human fancies in
the way of a fish diet. There are the divers — the "loons"
of the boatmen, extraordinarily voracious and expert fishers ;
but then there will not be more than a pair of them to many
miles of coast. The gannets, again, I fancy, appreciate
" caller herrin " as much as any Loch Fyne housewife. It is
truly a fine sight in free falconry to see that great white
body of feathers and strength, a hungry solan, sweep down
the rifts of the clouds, surveying as he goes the hollows of
the waves that toss by under him in long confused ranks
before a fresh off-shore breeze, and then mark him suddenly
check his easy sweep from point to point and fall like a white
satellite with a triumphant scream from just under the grey
sky into those green waters which close over him in a cascade
of white foam. If any one could take their eyes off the bay
before he is up again, mounting in easy spirals to his watch
towers in the rift — or begrudge him that silvery fish (what-
ever it be) over which the wind brings us his wild exulting

228 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

laugh — then we can only suggest they are more conventional
than we are and less easily pleased.

The green-eyed cormorants are familiar objects of the
coast, either flapping with undeviating integrity of purpose
just above the water across the harbour mouth, or " hanging
themselves out to dry " on the warm rocks after a successful
foray. A well-wisher of theirs puts in a kind word for them.

" Nor from another standpoint can the cormorant be re-
garded as injurious. I do not refer to any qualities which
might touch the heartstrings of the aesthetic or sentimental,
which vibrate so plaintively for the captive goldfinch or the
tender pigeon's wrongs, for this is only a black, ungainly
fowl, albeit beloved by Njord of Northern lore — a patient,
clever fisher, but of what? Often I have watched the cor-
morant fill its pouch before taking its nine-mile heavy flight
to its young on the cliffs of Budleigh Salterton, where, mid-
way between the sea and heather, it breeds unmolested among
grey, samphire-covered rocks, or ledges of red sand, and seen
in nearly every instance its prey has been the flat fish or the
eel, than which no greater enemy exists to salmon spawn and
fry." And, further, what cormorant can compare in destructive
capacity with the greedy fisherman, or poacher, who kills the
salmon big with spawn for an uneasy meal or shameful
market ? In truth, the Phalacocorax carlo, as Temminck has
it, has not alone the right to a name distinctive from the
earliest days of rapacity and greed.

In Devonshire, we are informed, the responsible authorities
silently proclaim their opinion of this great ungainly sea-crow
by withholding protection from him all the year round. In
China and Ceylon he is a professional fisher working from a
boat's prow, with a strap round his neck, industriously and
successfully. Except perhaps in the breeding season, when
he, like all other animate life, has given hostages to fortune
and increases his kind at his own imminent peril, the cor-
morant is very well able to take care of himself.

The sea birds have their protective legislation, and I am

SEA FOWL. 229

not in any great fear of their speedy extermination. What,
however, the Rev. F. 0. Morris, and others equally perspicuous
and kindly hearted, seek to do is to rouse and maintain a
lively sympathy with our wonderfully rich and varied shore
and inland fauna. They would forbid the cockney fusillades
which sweep the English cliffs of their tenants while the young
are still callow and dependent ; nip in the bud, if I understand
them aright, puerile and abortive superstitions regarding the
misarraiigement of Nature, and frown down (perhaps the
hardest task of all) the shop-girl fancy for ill-gotten plumes
— wantonly pillaged for a purpose they do not effect. These
humanitarians, however, are no sentimentalists, or they would
forfeit the support of the keen British relish for outdoor
sports which vivifies and supplies the backbone of their cause.
They recognize there is a difference between the barbaric
carnage which loads the stem and stern of a boat with the
shattered and soiled bodies of seamew and tern, of which
little or nothing can be made, and reasonable and legitimate
sport when the breeding season is over. It must not be for-
gotten that grouse moors and partridge manors are little less
accessible to the majority of our countrymen than the golden
fruit of the Hesperides. They turn naturally to the foreshore,
that border country between riparian avarice on the one hand
and the ocean on the other, and here it is only natural they
should find some freedom. I myself have spent many happy
days on the shingle and under the white face of the towering
cliffs, matching my skill in stalking against the superabundant
watchfulness of the curlews, or attempting to approach red-
shank and plover in wilderness of shingle and yellow sea
poppies. To attempt the suppression of these proclivities in
our race by Act of Parliament, would be as senseless as was
the project of the emperor who sought to cure his subjects
of avarice by coining money of preposterous weight and
steeping it on the threshold of the royal mint in evil-smelling
fluids.

But every true sportsman detests remorselessness, and

230 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

with, the spread of good sense and the active propaganda of
such kindly leaders as the rector of Nunburnholm, sea and
land birds will receive due protection and recognition without,
we think, the naturalist and gunsman's modest and orderly
pleasures being infringed.

In the new edition of " The History of Foreign Birds,"
by Yarrel, the editor, a well-known member of the Zoo-
logical Society, writes thus : — '

Laridce, p. 653. — " The eggs are seldom laid until the
last week in June, so that -many of the young are still in the
nest or barely fliers when the Sea Birds' Protection Act
expires on the 1st of August. Some years ago, when the
plumes of birds were much worn in ladies' hats — a fashion
which any season may see revived — the barred wings of the
young kittiwake were in great demand for this purpose, and
vast numbers were slaughtered at their breeding haunts. At
Clovelly, opposite Lundy Island, there was a regular staff
for preparing the plumes, and fishing smacks, with extra
boats and crews, used to commence their work of destruc-
tion at Lundy Island by daybreak on the 1st of August,
continuing this proceeding for upwards of a fortnight. In
many cases the wings were torn off the wounded birds
before they were dead, the mangled victims being tossed
back into the water. The editor has seen hundreds of young
birds dead or dying of starvation in the nests. ... It is
well within the mark to say that at least nine thousand
of these inoffensive birds were destroyed in a fortnight."

But those who like statistics of this kind ought to write
to the Selborne Society for a useful little pamphlet published
on the abuse of bird plumage as a means of adornment.
We do not attach very much importance to igures, for we
can judge for ourselves in the streets and shops of London,
Paris, New York, and other large cities and towns, what
must be the sacrifice of bird life ; nevertheless we give a
few items derived from various authentic sources. Between
December, 1884, and April, 1885, there were sold in one

SEA FOWL. 231

London auction room 6228 birds of paradise, 4974 Impeyan
pheasants, 770 Argus (Monal), 404,464 West Indian and
Brazil birds, 356,389 East Indian birds, besides kingfishers,
parrots, bronze doves, fruit-eating pigeons, jays, rollers,
regent birds, tanagers, creepers, chats, black partridges,
golden orioles, pheasants, etc. ; and various odds and ends such
as ducks' heads, toucans' breasts, and sundry nests. "Wanted,
1000 dozen seagulls " (Advertisement, Cork Constitution).
"Wanted, 10,000 pairs jays', starlings', and other wings."
From America, we get the following. A Broadway dealer
says, " We buy from 500,000 to 1,000,000 small American
birds every year. Native birds are very cheap." Concern-
ing terns, Mr. Butcher says, " 3000 were killed at Seaford,
L.I., and 40,000 at Cape Cod in one season." One taxider-
mist prepares 30,000 skins for hats and bonnets every
season. Maryland sent 50,000 birds, many being Baltimore
orioles, to Paris in a single season ; a New York taxider-
mist contracts for 300 skins a day, for his trade with France ;
Ohio Valley, 5000 skins. We might add pages of such facts.
It is rather the fashion in England to say that these American
figures are of no interest. But most of the birds are killed
in America in a great measure for export to England, and
thus the destruction of bird life is kept up by English
women. Existence, to the Baltimore oriole and our robin
redbreast, is equally enjoyable, Why cut it short ? A bird-
skin stuffed, wired, and supplied with eyes, lasts for a few
weeks and is then throw aside as "out of fashion."

Do not injure the cause of the preservation of birds,
Mr. George Musgrave advises, "by trying to prove too much,
and in some instances appearing to value the lives of dumb
animals above those of men and their families who produce
or obtain food for the community." Sea birds have their
faults. The skua bullies the gull, and the gull behaves
infamously to the guillemot. The puffins evict the rabbit,
and thus deprive human beings of food and a source of
income. The mariner who trusts to sea birds in a fog or

232 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

a storm (pace, Mr. Morris !), where they are very much at
sea themselves, will never, we hope, obtain the command
of an emigrant ship ! And finally, in all friendship to Mr.
Musgrave and his allies, I would suggest that not only
is it judicious not to attempt to prove too much, but also
there is wisdom and reason in not demanding too much.
The poor shooter justly claims as much moral right to carry
his gun iinder the cliffs in the hot autumn weather, as any
virtuous friend of the birds may do to relish his tender
spring chicken and bread sauce, or to take another slice
from that confiding Michaelmas goose who put his trust in
the motherly kindness of the henwife.

( 233 )

CHAPTER X.

QUILLS AND FEATHERS.

SOME NOTES ON BIRD BOOKS.

THERE would scarcely be a better exercise for any one who
might be inclined to doubt the abiding popularity of matters
of ornithology and sport with the British public, than to
take a short expedition into the literature of the subject.
This has accumulated and still accumulates in a manner that
is very gratifying to those who love the country side, but
sorely perplexing to the assimilator who would reduce the
chaotic mass of information into some reasonable form and
order. To index everything that has been written upon
ornithology for even the last hundred years would be to
compile a vast catalogue, reaching the dignity of a portly
encyclopaedia, and to own. all these various works in every
written tongue, were it possible, would be to possess a mag-
nificent but overwhelming library.

One thing simplifies the problem, and this is that the best
works on this subject are without question amongst the most
modern. There are no classics in ornithology. The occa-
sional allusions in remote writers to the subject are often
gems of description extraordinarily pithy and pointed because
they came from direct, unprejudiced observation. What, for
instance, could be more fascinatingly real than Virgil's ac-
count of a rock dove breaking from her cavern nest ?

" Quails spelunca subito commota Columba,
Cui domus," etc.

234 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

which Dryden translates with half the ring of the original —

" As when the dove her rocky hold forsakes
Roused in a fright her sounding wings she shakes ;
The cavern rings with clattering : out she flies
And leaves her callow care, and cleaves the skies;
At first she flutters — but at length she springs
To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings."

But such are incidental to other matter. Amongst the
books on English birds which figure conspicuously on the
naturalist's shelves and are dear to his leisure hours are
such, for instance, as Yarrel's " History of British Birds,"
with upwards of 1070 engravings on wood — containing accu-
rate figures, with accompanying description of every known
variety of British, bird ; and this has from the first taken
its pos^ion as the standard authority on the subject in
our language. Yarrel has been edited by Richardson, New-
man, and others, and not neglected by the publishers.

Bewick's " History of British Land and Water Birds "
is almost more famous for its woodcuts, full of animation and
a quaint delicacy, than for its letterpress.

These volumes, in their many reprints and with their
supplements, belong, we must confess, rather to the province
of the bibliophile than to the ornithologist. Of the many
issues, that of Newcastle, bearing date 1826, was the first
edition in which the " Supplement " was incorporated, and
also the last edition which the author-artist saw through
the press. The paper on which this edition was printed
is reputed to show the delicacies of the engravings to the
best advantage. But, great as is our respect for this
limner, he must be put down rather as an engraver than
as a naturalist.

Then there is Sir William Jardine's " Naturalist's
Library," a bold attempt at summarizing Nature in forty
volumes, more suited to the taste of the first half of the
century than to this latter part. Sir W. Jardine's coadjutors
in this admirable series were Swainson, Selby, Macgillivray,
Waterhouse, Duncan, Hamilton, Smith, and others. There

QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 235

are some 1200 beautifully coloured plates in the work, a
copy of which, is perhaps worth, five or six guineas.

Latham's " General History of Birds," with the
synonyms of preceding writers, and 194 carefully coloured
plates, 11 vols. 4to, and printed at Winchester in 1821-28,
is a well-known work. "If the author had used a more
modern system of classification instead of adhering to that
of Linnaeus, this work would unquestionably be one of the
most complete and useful in existence," wrote a contempo-
rary reviewer. Considering, however, that the author was
nearly ninety when his work appeared, it deserves much
admiration.

Montagu's " Ornithological Dictionary, or Alpha-
betical Synopsis of British Birds," with coloured frontis-
piece and 24 plates, in two volumes, dated 1802, is often
quoted. Colonel Montagu was one of the few soldiers who
devoted themselves to ornithology against a whole array of
the church militant.

Glosse is a familiar name again. His " Popular History
of British Ornithology," a familiar and technical descrip-
tion of the birds of the British Isles, 19 plates, containing
70 coloured figures of birds (1853), is very pleasant reading.
He has written, too, some " Naturalist's Rambles on the
Devonshire Coast," which are illustrated with coloured
plates, and come near to the freshness of Gilbert White
himself.

That latter admirable divine must not be overlooked.
To say there is an indescribable freshness about his work,
like the inalienable cadence which hangs round Shakespeare's
sentences or the mellow vigour of Scott's prose, would be
trite and ineffective. He is amongst birds what Isaak
Walton was amongst fishes — the professor of the field, and
the permanent holder of that chair which Nature herself
has endowed.

Well known to every one for the delightful details it
contains of the habits and manners of British birds, this

236 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

work is interspersed occasionally with notices of other
animals, but the amiable author appears to have paid most
attention to the feathered tribes. The " Natural History
of Selborne " has passed through a great many editions ;
Rennie's contains notes by Herbert, Sweet, Rennie, and
Mitford, and should be in the hands of every one — the
general reader no less than the professed naturalist. All
scientific detail is here avoided, and indeed White probably
knew very few of the Linnaean names, as we frequently meet
with such appellations as " Passer arundinaceus" " Regulus
non cristatus" etc. The book consists of a series of letters
addressed to Pennant and Daines Barrington.

Then there is Thomas Pennant, the first three volumes of
whose " British Zoology " can hardly be spared from our
shelves, though the arrangement (of 1781) is rather out of
date to-day. Side by side with him are Buffon's works, and
the pleasant chapters of Wilson and Waterton. The latter
was almost the first amongst naturalists to place the study
of birds in their native state before their arrangements in
cabinets and museum shelves. He invented a system of
taxidermy which, like some ancient Egyptian arts, became
extinct with its inventor; but any one who would know
what a happy valley of bird life may be formed, even in
this northern climate, should read the account of his English
home and the wonders he performed there in taming and
acclimatizing.

Macgillivray prepared an excellent " Manual of British
Birds," and Selby's "Illustrations of British Ornitho-
logy " are often quoted. These were, at the time, the most
masterly works, on the whole, that had appeared on the birds
of Britain. The first edition was .on the system of Temminck,
with one or two improvements, as, for instance, the removing
from the genus Sylvia of Latham the common and gold-
crested wren. The descriptions of habits, nidification, etc.,
are sufficiently full for .a systematic work, and always
correct. The plates are all drawn and coloured from Nature,

QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 237

by the author. Every individual of the families Falconidce
and Strigidce would make a perfect picture of itself, so
beautifully and correctly are they executed. " Few of the
others come up to these, and we are sorry to add that the
talented author has entirely failed in the delineation of
the Sylviadcp. and Fringillidce." The figures of the falcon
and owl families have certainly never been equalled — even
by Gould and Audubon.

This, with one or two omissions, brings us down to some
more modern writers ; the J. Gr. Atkinson (dear to school-
boys) whose " British Birds, Eggs and Nests " have been
the key to lots of delightful half holidays amongst English
lads, and whose little classics bring back happy hours when
the " boys of an older growth " chance upon them amongst
their heavier volumes. J. E. Harting's " Handbook of
British Birds " shows the distribution of the resident and
migratory birds in the British Islands, with an index to the
records of the rarer species. " The Ornithology of Shake-
speare," critically examined, explained, and illustrated, is a
useful work not attempted before ; while in " Our Summer
Migrants," we have an account of the migratory birds
which pass the summer in the British Islands, illustrated
from designs by Thomas Bewick. For those who reside in
the country and have the time and inclination to observe the
habits of birds, this is a most entertaining volume. The
habits have been noted and much information generally
given about our summer migratory birds.

Without our Rev. F. O. Morris, of Nunburnholm, we
should be lost indeed ! His " History of British Birds/' in
six volumes, with 365 finely coloured plates (£6 65.), and
published only some fifteen years ago, could hardly be better.
In the smaller editions since issued, the letterpress is repro-
duced in its completeness, but the plates have been cut down
to a woeful extent owing to the exigencies of binding, com-
pletely spoiling their artistic appearance, though not their
usefulness, of course, for purposes of identification. To the

238 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

beginner, anxious to possess a reliable work, and yet uncertain
what it should be, T would certainly recommend Morris — the
larger edition, if it can be afforded (and it is sometimes to
be had cheaply second-hand) ; and if not, then the lesser one.
To Harrison Weir the ornithologist owes a debt of grati-
tude, and the services of the Rev. J. Gr. Wood in popular-
izing the science will not be forgotten. Mr. Smiles, in his
" Life of a Scotch Naturalist," has done a good deed in
showing the enthusiasm is no expensive hobby, but one that
can brighten and ennoble the humblest existence. To Mr.
B. Jeffries we look for some delightful sketches of natural
history and rural life, in a vein that has been too much
neglected of late; and so on through more well-known names
and deserving works than we can find space to mention.

These have all, so far, been the student writer, the natu-
ralists of pen and scapula ; but there are others — the natu-
ralists of gun and pen, whose writings are at least as
entertaining, and indeed, sometimes more valuable to the
cause of sterling science than the manual of the savant whose
happy hunting-ground is the labour of his predecessors, and
who never saw half the birds he described unticketed or full
of any sort of individuality but such as arsenical soap and
wire can supply.

If, as we have seen, the monkish writers attempted
a little occasional descriptive ornithology, it was not long
after this that the first quaint attempts were made at direct-
ing the " fowler " in his art. Not perhaps the first, but still
an early essay, is the " Boke of St. Alban's, containing
treatises on hawking, hunting, and cote armour," printed in
1486 by Caxton.

There is a curious little book on " Hunger's Prevention,"
by one Gurvas Markham, and some others such. But the
handler of modern arms of precision does not become at
home, or begin to "feel the bottom," until he gets amongst
such books as Squire Osbaldiston's "British Sportsman,"

QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 239

a dictionary of recreation and amusement, with copper plates
of hunting, coursing, and shooting. This bears date 1792,
and, at a time when there were few such, must have been
delightful reading indeed. Such miscellanies were then in
vogue, as the " Gentleman's Recreation," in four parts —
viz. hunting, hawking, fowling, fishing; also the method
of breeding and managing a hunting horse (1721) ; or the
" Sporting Review," a monthly chronicle of the turf, the
chase, and rural sports in all their varieties, edited by
" Craven," with numerous illustrations (some coloured) by
Alken and others. This contains complete articles on racing,
fishing, coursing, hunting, shooting, coaching, yachting, etc.

Some of these occasionally come to light in old book boxes,
and the bibliographic ardour of the age fixes a value upon
them above their worth. Daniel's "Rural Sports," hunting,
angling, shooting, fowling, etc., with numerous beautiful
engravings by J. Scott, in four vols., roy. 8vo, and dated 1812,
deserves mention as a successful example of the pleasant-
penned lexicographer, who thought nothing of summarizing
a dozen sports which nowadays would be relegated to as
many individuals. He is appealed to less as a guide to-day,
than as a historic sign-post in the annals of sporting ; and
any one who would know how game was shot or hunted,
while the century was still in bud, takes down their Daniel,
and rarely in vain. His contemporary, Thomas, wrote a
" Complete Sportsman's Companion," with descriptions
of the various kinds of dogs, their breeding and rearing; also
instructions for shooting grouse, pheasants, and snipe, illus-
trated with four pretty etchings of shooting scenes by Howitt
(1820). Maxwell's " Field Book of Sports and Pastimes
of the United Kingdom " is a volume full of every subject
connected with games and sports, with numerous woodcuts.

These, however, are but stars of the second and fourth
magnitude in the firmament of our library walls, compared
to that brilliant luminary, Colonel Hawker. His " Hand-
book for Young Sportsmen" is a priceless volume, in spite

240 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

of all that has been written since. Guns have changed and
circumstances have altered, but this does not affect Colonel
Hawker, who is still our reliance upon everything connected
with waterside shooting especially. The art of the covert
side was not quite so dear to him as the freer and more
adventurous sport of the marsh land and estuary, a pecu-
liarity he has shared with many another keen gunsman and
good observer. This writer was an early disciple of large
bore guns, and a thorough " all round " shooter, than whom
there could scarcely be a pleasanter friend for the fireside or
safer guide to the common sense of the tide way.

The "Oakleigh Shooting Code" (1836) is often
referred to. It deals chiefly with red grouse, blackgame, and
partridges ; and " Craven's " (Captain J. W Carleton's)
"Recreations in Shooting" (1846) is a handy volume,
very prettily illustrated.

This epoch was fertile in writers of the kind. Who could
possibly overlook or fail to be fascinated by St. John's
(Charles) " Tour in Sutherlandshire," with extracts from
the field books of a sportsman and naturalist (1849). " One
of the most agreeable mixtures of observation, description,
incident, and anecdote that we have met for many a day."

Colquhoun's " Sporting Days in the Highlands " deals
with wildfowl shooting, deer stalking, etc. ; his " The Moor
and the Loch " contains practical hints on Highland
sports, and notices of the habits of the different creatures
of game and prey in mountainous districts of Scotland, with
instructions in river, burn, and loch fishing (1841).

"The Wildfowl er," by H. E. Folkard, is another delightful
book for sea shooters, full of wise advice about duck shooting
with gunning punts and shooting yachts ; as also much about
fowling in the fens and in foreign countries, rock fowling,
and so on. The steel plate engravings to this volume are
both delicate and carefully executed, and the chapters are anno-
tated and stocked with an infinite variety of information. This
is another of those books which every one should possess.

QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 241

We have left ourselves but little space for the writers of
to-day, who, however, are no doubt fully able for the most
part to call attention to their own handiwork. " The
Badminton Library " is an ambitious attempt to sweep
the board and summarize every English sport in one of
a series of volumes. It will never oust the fathers of the
craft from their places on our shelves, clever as many of its
writers undoubtedly are in their distinctive branches.
" Tegetemier on Pheasants," and " Idstone " on shooting
them, go hand-in-hand ; " Stonehenge " (the genial editor
of the Field) has written handbooks of amazing popularity ;
and " Wildfowler " (L. Clements) revived, for the time at
least, the passion for marsh and rough shooting, which, if
it ever becomes extinct, will do so the rather because^ there
are no longer any suitable spots where it can be practised,
than because the race of to-day lack hardihood or manliness
for its successful pursuit.

In commencing this chapter I had before me a vast
amount of rough material in the form of endless cuttings —
the gleanings of many months* industrious reading of book
lists, — as well as notes from the contents of my own shelves..
But it soon became obvious that to utilize even the greater
portion of all this crude knowledge would necessitate the
preparation of yet another volume to the naturalist's library
to accommodate it. So it was ruthlessly jettisoned ; and it
only remains to add a word regarding one or two useful
books on foreign birds.

Of course some of the naturalist-authors mentioned in
the beginning may be consulted with advantage for the
bird life of distant countries. But few Englishmen have
exceeded Gould in the versatility of his knowledge on this
subject, or the magnificence of the works in which he em-
bodied it. Messrs. Southeran announce an edition of his
complete labours in. twenty volumes, for which they ask the
sum of £400 per copy !

E

242 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

"The works of Mr. Gould constitute a new epoch in
the history of ornithology, from the boldness of the plan
on which they were executed; the number of new species
added to science, and of doubtful species cleared away from
previous obscurity; the unadorned fidelity of the descrip-
tions ; and the exquisite accuracy of the plates, in which
the utmost adherence to nature is united with that felicitous
effect which stamps the artist, and proves that grace and
truthfulness may meet together. Again, Mr. Gould's works
form in themselves an ornithological museum ; pictorial, we
grant, but of such a character as to obviate the necessity
of a collection of mounted specimens, obtained at no trifling
cost, and preserved, even where room can be afforded for
them, not without the greatest trouble." — The Times.

Gould's books on humming-birds, as well as the collec-
tion he formed of the birds themselves, which is now in the
Natural History Museum, are known everywhere. The
only pity is that his works are so inordinately expensive.

Besides such a magnificently standard work as this,
embracing the birds of all countries, there are, passing
eastwards, that ever delightful book, Captain Lloyd's " Field
Sports of the North of Europe."

" The passion for the chase is strong in Mr. Lloyd's
constitution," writes a critic in Blackwood's Magazine. " It
seems for years to have been his ruling passion, and to have
made him a perfect model of perpetual motion. . . . We
admire Mr. Lloyd. He is a fine specimen of an English
gentleman ; bold, free, active, intelligent, observant, good-
humoured, and generous — no would-be wit, no paltry painter
of the picturesque — above all, no pedant and philosopher.
Mr. Lloyd's mind was wholly engrossed by his own wild
and adventurous Scandinavian life ; and when it was flown
he then began to lead it over again in imagination."

His "Game Birds and Wildfowl of Sweden and
Norway," with an account of the seals and salt-water
fishes (1867), is a valuable book, and should be possessed

QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 243

arid its delightful plates studied by all interested in the
summer homes of our various wildfowl.

To " An Old Bushman " (Wheelwright) we are indebted
for an enticing picture, " A Spring and Summer in Lap-
land," of collecting skins in the Lapland forests and witness-
ing the arctic winter vanish at the touch of spring.

That enlightened ecclesiastic, the Rev. Erich Pontoppidan,
in " The Natural History of Norway," has given a par-
ticular and accurate account of the temperature of the air,
the different soils, waters, vegetables, metals, minerals,
stones, beasts, birds, and fishes, together with the disposi-
tions, customs, and manners of living of the inhabitants,
interspersed with physiological notes from eminent writers,
and transactions of academies, with map of Norway and
28 plates. He adds some information on fowling in Norway,
with which I have occasionally made free.

Henry Seebohm's " Siberia in Asia " is full of curious
facts regarding the migrations and nesting of English birds.
Mr. Ernest Shelley, again, has written a comprehensive
handbook on " The Birds of Egypt," and a host of mono-
graphers, whom we have not space to detail at the length
which their learning and research demands, have epitomized
or amplified the feathered creatures of central and southern
Europe.

The Indian sportsman keeps his " Jerdon " at hand, and
cannot go far wrong while he has by him " The Birds of
India," in three volumes. There is also Le Messurier's
"Game, -Shore, and Water Birds of India," though
it is now very scarce ; and Burton's " Falconry in the
Valley of the Indus," with four fine plates after Wolf
and McMullin (1852) ; the " Catalogues of the Birds "
in the Museum of the Hon. East India Company, by T.
Horsfield, F.R.S., and F. Moore (1856); and others of various
merits. The name of Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe will always
be held in high repute by Indian ornithologists. He has
done much in classification or monographing, and there

244 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

is at the present time perhaps no one more fitted, if he
were willing, to prepare that urgently needed work, a clear,
comprehensive, but concise, book on the birds of the Indian
and Pacific Oceans.

In America there are good bird professors on every hand,
besides sporting writers who compete with any in the
mother country. The following are all useful books which
may be consulted with advantage.

" Game Birds and Water Fowl of the United
States," 20 fine coloured plates, equal to drawings, each
measuring twenty-two by twenty-eight inches, mounted on
cardboard. List of plates : the American snipe, the green-
winged teal, the woodcock, the mallard duck, the American
quail, the black duck, the ruffed grouse, the blue-bill duck,
the prairie chicken, the red-head duck, the Canada grouse,
the wood duck, the Calif ornian valley quail, the bume-
headed duck, the upland plover, the golden-eye duck or
whistler, the Calif ornian mountain quail, the widgeon, the
canvas-back duck, and the brant; one volume, atlas folio
(1878).

Wilson's "American Ornithology," enlarged by Jardine,
over 100 beautifully coloured plates of the birds of America,
three volumes (1876).

" Fauna Boreali Americana," the Zoology of the
northern part of British America ; the volume comprising
the birds is by Swainson, illustrated by 52 coloured plates
and wood engravings, royal 4to (1831).

Coue's "Birds of the North- West," a handbook of the
ornithology of the regions drained by the Missouri river
and its tributaries (Washington, 1874).

"The Birds of Jamaica," by P. H. Gosse.

Lewis's "American Sportsman," containing hints to
sportsmen, notes on shooting, and the habits of the game
birds and wildfowl of America; and Long's "American
Wildfowl Shooting," containing full and accurate de-
scriptions of the haunts, habits, and methods of shooting

QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 245

wildfowl, particularly those of the Western States of
America ; instructions concerning guns, blinds, boats, and
decoys ; the training of water retrievers, etc. ; the true
history of choke-bores, the theory of their action on the
charge, construction, loading, etc., with a correct method of
testing the shooting powers of shot-guns.

English game preserving has of late become a fine art.
There was a time, and painfully remote it seems at present,
when the only necessaries for a day's shooting, provided, of
course, you kept off the king's manors and respected the
abbot's fat bucks, were the implements of your craft with due
skill. Now, alas, a day's shooting is a matter of solemn
preliminaries, to which banker, solicitor, understrappers, and
government licences are all accessories before the fact.

On game preserving as a means to a practical business-
like result, Mayers, in his " Park and Gamekeeper's Com-
panion," wrote in 1828; there is also Rawstorne's "Art
of Preserving Game," and method of making plantation
covers explained and illustrated, with 15 coloured drawings
of shooting scenes, etc. (1837).

"Practical Game Preserving," containing directions
for rearing and preserving both winged and ground game,
and destroying vermin, with other information of value to
the game preserver, by William Carnegie, is well known.
" Mr. Carnegie gives a great variety of useful information as
to game and game preserving, with many valuable sugges-
tions. The instructions as to pheasant rearing are sound,
and the chapters on poaching and poachers, both human
and animal, are particularly to the point, and amusing
withal."

Johnson's "Gamekeeper's Directory," with instructions
for preservation of game, destruction of vermin, prevention
of poaching, etc., is useful; and the author of the "Amateur
Poacher " opens our eyes to many an artful device and
ingenious wile.

246 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

Of books dealing with the art of approaching wildfowl
there are: "Hints on Shore .Shooting/' including a
chapter on skinning and preserving birds, by J. E. Harting
— an admirable little volume ; " The Dead Shot, or
Sportsman's Complete Guide ; " a treatise on the use
of the gun, dog breaking, pigeon shooting, etc., by Marks-
man, with plates ; and Captain Lacy's " Modern Shooter,"
containing practical instructions and directions for every
kind of inland and coast work.

Of books on game laws, showing the keeper his relations
to the poacher when his birds have come to maturity, there
is Nelson's "Game Laws of England," of hunting, hawk-
ing, fishing, and fowling, of forests, chases, parks, warrens,
deer, dove-cotes, conies — a scarce and curious work ; " The
Game Laws of England for Gamekeepers," by Hugh
Neville, M.A., of the Inner Temple, barrister- at- law ; and
some few others. We may, however, safely say on this
subject, that the epitome of English laws we have given
in the following chapter possess the advantage of being
unquestionably the most recent of any ; and the summary
of foreign game regulations in a final chapter has never,
so far as we know, been attempted before.

If any one has a fancy for hawking, he may safely turn
to the pictorial pages of the " Falconer's Favourites," by
W. Brodrick, a series of life-size, well-coloured portraits of
all the British species of falcons used in falconry ; or,
" Falconry in the British Isles," by Salvin and Brodrick,
the second edition, with new plates and additions.

Finally, to bring our hasty and imperfect incursion into
the realm of this literature to an end, the farmer who would
know what English birds really eat all the year round should
consult Napier on " The Food, Use, and Beauty of
English Birds ; " and the taxidermist, Rowland Ward's
" Sportman's Handbook." Other excellent manuals on
this latter subject are Montague Brown's " Practical
Taxidermy;" Davies' "Practical Naturalist's Guide,"

QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 247

containing instructions for collecting, preparing, and pre-
serving specimens of all departments. of zoology, engravings,
(Edinburgh, 1858) ; or. Kingsley's " Naturalist's Assis-
tant," a handbook for the collector and student, with
a bibliography of 1500 works necessary for the systematic
zoologist, illustrated, 8vo, cloth, Boston, 1882. One, N. Wood,
has also prepared an " Ornithologist's Text Book," a
review of ornithological works, but it is long since out
of date.

If the amateur bird stuffer, or the professional for that
matter, would see and appreciate the highest perfection of
this beautiful art, let him study the exquisitely arranged
cases of the South Kensington Museum; or that splendid
private enterprise, the Booth collection, in the Dyke Road
Museum, Brighton.

Next to the endless pleasures of the open country and the
studying of Nature as Gilbert White did, the companionship
of wise and pleasant books is the naturalist's chiefest plea-
sure. Every one's taste or fancy will suggest certain books
to him as more fascinating than others ; but there is happily
no lack of material in any direction, and, with a well and
judiciously stocked library, he may still be cheerful when
weather or unkind circumstances keep him from the active
pursuit of his fascinating and ever soothing hobby.

248 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

CHAPTER XL

GROUSE MOORS AND DEER FORESTS.

BY J. W. BRODIE-!NNES.

SPOET in Scotland, according to its modern acceptation,
presents many features peculiar to itself, and hardly to be
found elsewhere ; along with special fascinations, it has
special difficulties and obstacles, which the English or
American millionaire, who draws health and enjoyment from
the heather hills, very imperfectly comprehends. In Eng-
land, as in most other countries, sport has been a gradual
development, whose direction has been determined partly
by the nature of the quarry, and the facilities for breeding
increased or lessened by the progress of agriculture in
different districts, and partly by the invention and improve-
ment of arms of precision, partly also by the gradual growth
of the game laws ; but, in the main, English sport to-day
is the natural product and outcome of English sport cen-
turies ago. In Scotland it is far otherwise. Within living
memory the idea of the Highlands as a playground for the
wealthy was unknown, and St. John's ** Wild Sports of the
Highlands " seems almost as archaic as Dame Juliana
Berners. Within the memory of old men, such an event as
a stranger coming to slay the grouse on the great barren
hill-sides was very infrequent ; no man bought or sold the
game ; the lairds and their friends shot for themselves and
for presents. In the majority of cases the boundaries of
properties were hardly known or heeded. If Seafield shot
one hill, and Cluny shot another, no one knew or cared

GROUSE MOORS AND DEER FORESTS. 249

precisely where the line lay between them. Poaching there
was, but it was for food or for sport, not for the filthy lucre
of the city poulterer, and did but little harm to any one ;
neither did the sport of the lairds interfere in any way with
the peasantry. The lot of the Highland peasant in those
days was rough and primitive. Sheltered nooks in the hill-
sides, where a turn of the hill protected a patch of decent
soil, grew corn and potatoes enough to feed a family sparsely ;
a few hardly black-faced sheep supplied wool which the
peasants themselves spun, wove, and dyed for their homely
clothing ; prices of grain and of mutton were good, if they
had any to sell. No one dreamt of artificially keeping up
a large head of game ; and if damage were done to crops,
it was more than compensated for by presents of game given
liberally by laird or chief.

The opening up of the Highlands by railways and coach-
roads, and the influx of tourists drawn thither by the fasci-
nation of Scott's novels, changed all the conditions of life as
suddenly as the shift of a pantomime scene. For the
peasants themselves, their lot had been grower harder, their
struggle for existence more severe from many causes. Since
they ceased to kill each other in constant clan feuds, and
learned to live more healthy and sanitary lives, they rapidly
increased beyond the capacity of the land to support them
in anything like comfort ; moreover, the natural indolence
of the Celtic temperament led them to depend largely on
the cultivation of the potatoe, and when the potatoe crop
failed the congested district was plunged in misery and
starvation. To these poor people the opening up of the
Highlands brought the sharp contrast of comfort and luxury
in city life, and the ready means of going thither, while the
repeal of the corn laws, largely depressing the prices of
produce, also had its necessary effect on a populace who
were all vendors, and hardly, if at all, purchasers of articles
of food. The concurrence of these and various other cognate
causes began the depopulation of the Highlands long before

250 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

the era of great sheep farms, grouse moors, or deer forests.
Another resultant from the same great change was the dis-
covery that the more delicate breeds of Cheviot sheep might
with care thrive on the Scotch hills, and could be brought
to perfection much earlier, and were therefore more valuable
to the breeder than the hardy stock of former days. Then,
by a natural sequence, came the large sheep farms in place
of the deserted crofter townships. To assert, as is often
done now, that the glens were cleared of men to make room
for sheep, is to display the sheerest ignorance or wilful
perversion of fact regarding the economic conditions. In
a few instances this might have occurred, and in some cases
no doubt tales of great hardship might be told ; but in the
vast majority of instances the people went voluntarily, or,
if removed, it was to save them from a life of wretched
dependence on charity, in a land which could no longer
support them, even though they had it for nothing. But
with the large sheep farmers came many wealthy Southrons
eager to enjoy the sport of which they had heard so much;
and as grouse and sheep lived amicably together, so the
sheep farmer and the shooting tenant became corelatives,
and the fascinations of grouse shooting grew into a fashion,
and then into a craze, with startling suddenness ; and thus
the moors were parcelled out, and boundaries denned with
mathematical exactness, and hosts of keepers and watchers
employed to protect the dearly bought luxury. But it could
not be expected that so sudden a revolution as this should
all at once commend itself to the people, especially to a
people so wedded to old tradition and old methods as the
Scotch. Those who remained and had not joined the exodus
to the towns, looked on the shooting tenants and the sheep
farmers with a jaundiced eye; the thing was new, therefore
abominable. The cry went up that the people were turned
out for grouse and sheep. A few doctrinaires took it up, a
few politicians for their own ends fostered it, and platform
spouters, knowing no more of the Highlands than the

GROUSE MOOES AND DEEE FORESTS. 251

interior of Africa, vapoured about it, till even some sensible
people began to think there was some solid grievance ; and
thus sport in the Highlands grew up under the powerful
stimulants of wealth and fashion on the one hand, and
subject to the powerful opposition of political and social
faction on the other.

No wonder the development was rapid, and the method
of pursuing the Tetras Scoticus of Linnaeus, or common red
grouse, passed through numberless modifications in the
course of a sportsman's memory. Few birds afford more
delightful and exhilarating sporfc, followed as one used to
follow them years ago, with the stout untiring English
setters, over the purple moorlands, with many a knee-deep
plunge in the soft boggy ground bordering the springs, where
the grouse love to congregate, watching the clever systematic
working of the dogs, and the point steady as a rock, when
with a whirr and a rush a fine young cock rises perpen-
dicularly some ten or twelve yards, then turns sharp for a
horizontal flight, but at that instant, as he poises on the turn,
the sharp challenge of the gun rings out, and a dishevelled
mass of feathers lies on the heather. Such sport as this in the
eye of the old sportsman cannot be excelled ; but " autres temps,
autres mceurs" the expenses of grouse-shooting have largely
increased, the city poulterer gives a ready market for the
quarry, and the temptation to make large bags, and so par-
tially defray the expenses, becomes every year greater, though
such an idea would have revolted the souls of the simple-
minded lairds and chiefs of olden times, and is still looked
on with great dissatisfaction by numbers of the peasantry.
The invention and improvement of breech-loaders has tended
to the same result, and conduced to the modern style of
walking in line at short distances apart, with gillies follow-
ing and carrying extra guns; till, in many parts, shooting
over dogs is regarded as an antiquated amusement, fit only
for old fogies. Whether arising from the frequent disturb-
ance caused by this mode of pursuit, or from the larger head

252 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

of game maintained on the moors, or from what reason it is
hard to say, but certain it is that in an ordinarily fine season,
when the birds are fairly early, by the beginning of Sep-
tember they grow as wild as hawks, and form themselves
into large packs, either rising far out of gunshot, or some-
times to be seen running some five hundred yards away,
ready to rise at the slightest step towards them, and fly a
mile or more, only to pursue the same tactics again, should
the sportsmen be ill advised enough to follow them. But
the sport which has cost so much cannot be abandoned as
hopeless after a fortnight or three weeks, and the old-fashioned
plan of sending a steady old dog to head off the pack, till his
master got near enough for a shot, would be far too tame
and slow for modern ideas, and by no means productive of
the big bags so much desired, and thus almost of necessity
has come the practice of " driving " — little turf-built shelters
concealing the sportsmen, who thus lie in ambush, while an
army of beaters, marching across the heather, drive the grouse
in flocks over their heads. A steady hand, a cool head, and a
quick eye are all pre-eminently necessary for this mode of
shooting, which, distasteful as it is to many of the old school,
is by no means the cockney sport it is sometimes stigmatized
as being. There is no catching the bird as he poises on his
turn from the perpendicular to the horizontal flight ; straight
overhead, with a rush like an express train, goes the flight,
the strong old cocks leading, and these it is the sportsman's
aim to pick off, for it is well known that shooting down the
old cocks is the best possible means of insuring a good stock
on the moors in the following years. And thus the grouse
drive has its own advantages and its own fascinations for
the sportsman, though the comfortable shelters, the chairs,
the luncheon, often attended by the ladies of the house-party,
and served by elaborate flunkies, are apt to waken the disdain
of old men •accustomed to tramp for long hours behind a
staunch dog, with nothing but a sandwich and a drop of
whisky at the midday halt by the spring.

GROUSE MOOES AND DEER FORESTS. 253

We have noted the dissatisfaction often evinced by the
peasantry at the progress of Scotch sport, and the reasons
for it, so far as those reasons amount to more than vague
and formless discontent. There is no doubt that sheep
farms and grouse moors, in some parts of the Highlands,
occupy lands where in old time the crofter township drew
scant subsistence from unwilling soil ; there is no doubt that
game of all kinds, under the fostering care of wealthy sports-
men, has enormously increased, and that the crops bordering
on the great moorlands have suffered in consequence, while
most of the game, which in old time found its way to the
crofter's cottage, now goes to the city poulterer. Still, it must
not be forgotten that, under the changed conditions of life, a
crofter township, living as their fathers were content to live,
in hardship and poverty, dependent merely on their own
exertions to produce food, clothing, and shelter, is simply
an Utopian dream. If the game laws were to be repealed
to-morrow, the wild birds and beasts destroyed from off the
great game-haunted hills, till the grouse became as extinct
as the dodo, and the shooting tenants driven for their sport
to Norway or Sweden, or some country wise enough in its
generation to welcome them, can any sane man suppose that
the glens would be forthwith peopled, as Lochiel well says,
with " a happy and contented crofting peasantry, who would
immediately show their satisfaction at the prospect presented
to them of pastoral felicity and domestic comfort, by rush-
ing into the arms of the first recruiting sergeant they might
chance to meet ? " On a moment's thought it must be
obvious that, whatever platform-spouters may say, the
existence of small crofting peasants depends on high prices
of the produce they grow, combined with a simplicity of life
and love of home, rendering them content with poverty and
hardship, so only that they might stay in the land of their
forefathers. These conditions are gone, never to return ;
only the love of home, deeply ingrained as it is in the Celtic
nature, remains in a modified degree, and even that is now

254 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

more often used as a lever to help an agitation than as a
valid and living principle of action.

On the other side of the picture, the benefits resulting to
the native population from the changed circumstances are
obvious, however much Radical agitators may strive to prove
the contrary. Let any one who knew the Highlands thirty
or forty years ago pass through the country now. Who
made those excellent roads, who built those trim shooting-
boxes, and set up those miles on miles of fencing ? Who
but the peasants of the country, paid by the gold of the much-
abused sporting tenant ! Again, who watches and protects
the game, traps the weasels and the stoats, the wild cats and
the foxes ? but the local peasantry, now finding congenial
occupation as gillies and keepers. There are kirks for them
to worship in, schools equal to any in Europe for the training
of their children. Whence come the rates that provide these
things ? Once again, from the sporting tenant. Scotland,
under free trade, and with all the competition of the world
against her barren soil and her ungenial climate, can no
longer support her sons by tillage ; but Scotland as a play-
ground, as a land of sport, as a producer of game, offers
chances to her people, if they have but the sense to take
them, such as few countries can vie with. Even now the
government of Sweden are learning the lesson, and taking
steps for the afforesting of vast tracts of their country, with
a view to attracting some of the golden shower annually
poured forth over the playgrounds of Europe ; and they have
consulted with the best experts in Scotland on the conditions
most likely to ensure success. A movement like this forms
a refutation of especial value to the sentimental vapourings
of Professor Blackie and other political theorists, who
would fain go back for a century, in respect of one feature
in rural life, while retaining the habits, the requirements,
the responsibilities, the moral and intellectual training which
a century of progress has produced.

But further changes and developments have taken place

GROUSE MOORS AND DEER FORESTS. 255

within the last few years. Improved communication with our
colonies, and improved modes of conveying both live and
dead meat and wool to the English markets, have greatly
reduced the profits on sheep-farming ; while the introduction,
already alluded to, of the more delicate breed of Cheviot
sheep by the South-country graziers, to replace the old hardy
black-faced stock, has considerably increased the cost of pro-
duction in many parts of the Highlands. Take, for instance,
what are called the wedder farms, that is to say, land too
high and rugged for breeding ewes, and there is a vast
quantity of such land in many parts of the country, especially
in the wild districts of Rosshire and Sutherland, or on the
Grampian range. The stock on these farms consists of
wedder lambs, put on the ground in August, and sold when
three and a half years old. Some ten or twelve years ago
the number of trains on the Skye railway, laden with sheep
going in the early winter to the low country, was utterly
astounding to a stranger ; but the expenses connected with
rearing and wintering this wedder stock have so increased
of late, while the price of wool has fallen, that wedder farms
are no longer profitable, and the South-country graziers have
for the most part left Rosshire and Inverness, and even in
the comparatively mild districts of Sutherland but few are
now left. The results are serious in many ways. There are
but three elements of value in Highland property, strictly
so-called, viz. sheep-farm rents, sporting rents, and crofter
rents. If economic conditions destroy the first, as has already
happened in many of the districts, it is clear that, unless the
sporting rents can be maintained, the whole burden of local
rates and taxes must be borne by the crofters, and from
what source the money for these purposes is to be obtained
by men without capital, without experience or special skill,
where those who command all these requisites have failed,
it is hard to see. Even though the land were given rent free
to the crofters, the rates and taxes necessary to maintain
roads, police, schools, minister's stipend, etc., would far exceed

256 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

any profit they could possibly hope to make. It is easy to
say these expenses ought to be met by the landlords — ex
nihilo nihil fit ; and if all the value of Highland property
be taken from it, whence is the landlord to satisfy the claims
of the rate-collector ? Happily, there is an alternative — where
sheep cannot live, and where no blade of corn could be
induced to grow is the favourite haunt and home of the
great red deer, the noblest quarry that ever taxed the skill
and endurance, of a sportsman in the British islands. Pro-
bably there is no possible means whereby a wealthy man
can secure a more abundant return, in health and enjoyment,
for the money spent on an autumn holiday, than by renting
a deer forest; in no other way can we account for the
enormous sums spent annually on this sport, apart altogether
from the sporting rent, which, as we have said, goes far to
relieve the peasantry from the burden of rates and taxes.
When we find that, in eighteen years, Mr. Fowler, of Brsemore,
has spent £105,000, Lord Tweedmouth £50,000, and Sir
John Ramsden £180,000, to take only three typical cases,
and consider the classes of people among whom this money
is spent and who benefit thereby, including masons, joiners,
plasterers, pi ambers, and slaters, with labourers for each
trade, wire fencers, road-makers, blacksmiths, carriers, besides
local shopkeepers, gillies, deer watchers, trappers, etc. ; it must
be evident that, so far from depopulating the Highlands,
the creation of deer forests in fitting districts enables them
to support a far larger population than under present con-
ditions would otherwise be possible. The condition of the
country under deer is widely different from that of moors
under sheep and grouse. The latter, as we have seen, live
amicably together. No special care is needed to avoid dis-
turbing the grouse. Even in the breeding season the shep-
herds come and go, and the hen grouse will sit placidly on
her nest and never heed them, when once she realizes that
no harm is meant, and every enemy that can hurt the game
is ruthlessly destroyed, whether it be weasel or polecat, wild

GROUSE MOOES AND DEER FORESTS. 257

cat or fox. On the deer forest, on the other hand, every-
thing must be given up to the utmost quiet, so that the
shyest and wariest of all wild animals may pasture in peace
and undisturbed till the art of man meets the instinct of
the animal in the attempt of the stalker to circumvent the
noble stag on his own ground. Often and often has the
sudden crow and whirring flight of an old cock grouse,
startled by the tread of the deer-stalker, given a note of
warning to the stag, maybe a mile or more distant, and
spoiled a whole day's patient labour ; often has some harm-
less tourist in search of ferns scattered a whole herd whereof
probably he never saw or suspected a horn. Hence it is
that owners of forests try their utmost to keep down the
grouse, and to this end encourage the ground vermin, and
forests generally swarm with the wild cat and the fox ; and
hence also trespassers are as sternly warned off as though
the great bare hill-sides were a lady's pleasaunce. Very
hard seems this latter restriction, so impossible is it for the
ordinary non-sporting Sassenach to see where the harm
comes in. Not a vestige of a deer can he see, nor does he for
a moment understand or believe that his mere presence can
make the slightest difference to any living creature on the
distant hill face, whose purple heather looks to him merely
an uninterrupted stretch of purple velvet, glowing in the
sun and sending up its rich honey scents to the myriads of
bees. But Donald from his shieling, watching through his
telescope, sees peering above a heathery knoll a mighty
pair of spreading antlers of ten points terminating in the
orthodox three- pointed cup. Crouched down in that sheltered
nook, with his harem of hinds keeping guard around him,
lies the magnificent " royal " that shall be the prize of some
wary stalker before the season is over; already his horns,
clear of moss, are taking the brown hue like the peat bog.
Donald measures them with his eye, and calculates how
soon that noble head may be expected to hang in the hall
of the shooting lodge, the finest trophy there; but as he

s

258 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

watches, a feeding hind lifts her head with a quick gesture.
What is the matter? Only the crackle of a dry scrap of
heather under the feet of a spectacled professor with tin
collecting-box, hunting for some obscure lichen — only this ;
but the hind's quick challenge spreads to her pasturing
sisters, a dozen heads are lifted, dainty little hoofs stamp
the ground, in an instant the mighty "royal" himself is
on his legs. With a defiant toss of the great antlers, and a
sniff at the breeze tainted by the presence of the poor meek
professor, the whole group are off and away, rousing in their
rapid flight other family groups, till to the keen eye of the
old gillie the whole hill-side seems in motion ; and, closing
his telescope with a sigh, he recognizes the fact that, for a
week at least, no sport can be had on that particular hill.
It may be said, if the presence of a human being produces
results so disastrous, how can the stalkers themselves go
through the forest without spoiling their own sport ? The
answer is simple. At the commencement of a day on the
forest the gillies and watchers have swept with their tele-
scopes every nook and cranny of the hill the sportsmen
are to try ; every horn in sight is known and marked ; the
likely places for deer to lie perdu are noted; the direction
of the wind and the turns and eddies with which it sweeps
and swirls through the eorries are carefully considered, and
a line is chosen whereby, without alarming a single hind,
the stag selected may be approached. Cautiously the little
party creep from shelter to shelter, ever with an eye on the
distant game; should a hind, lift her head, the word is "drop"
wherever you are, behind a rock, into a burn, it matters not ;
there you must lie till the alarm is past and the herd feeding
quietly again. Often with wide circuits to avoid some
obstinate cross current of wind that would bear the tale of
your presence to the wary quarry, till at last, maybe after
hours of patient clambering, creeping, lying hid, in short
pitting your wits against the instinct and cunning of the
keenest animal that lives, you are within rifle-shot ; and now,

0 ROUSE MOOES AND DEER FORESTS. 259

beware lest the nervous agitation of the moment cause you
to lose your head, or cause your hand to quiver and so you
spoil that grand haunch, or worse still, commit the one
unpardonable sin on a forest of wounding the deer. Better
had you missed it altogether, better often that you should take
the nearest train and boat to the wild west than appear
before your host with such a confession.

But the average Englishman does not understand the
conditions of sport on the deer forest. To him it seems
grievous that the botanizing professor should be disturbed
in the pursuit of his hobby; that the artist should be
debarred from the lovely glens ; that the home-going peasant
should be shut out from a short cut home across his native
hills. And it seems grievous precisely in proportion to his
inability to understand the damage these would do ; and
thus a door is opened to the political and other malcontents
who would destroy the forests of Scotland, to do so by a
side wind and indirect attack. The Access to Mountains
Bill was a case in point. The amount of sympathy and
support this proposal won was directly due to the impos-
sibility of ordinary folk guaging the disingenuous nature
of its proposals, and the specious fair-seeming with which
they were brought forward.

J. W. BRODIE INNES.

THE LAWS OF COVERT AND FEN.

Game and wildfowl laws, it may be fairly noted, are impor-
tant in two respects. There is, firstly, their effect from a
national point of view, their bearing on the abundance or
scarcity of fur and feather itself. There are, secondly, con-
siderations, dear to theoretical politicians, as whether the
ground of a necessity devoted to them is wisely so devoted,
whether they are good for the morality of the country-side,
or whether they stir up hatred, and malice, and so on,
in a circle of wide questions about which men have not

260 BIRD LIFE IF ENGLAND.

agreed from the time when Nimrod cut off the ears of
early Persian poachers down to to-day, which sees such
matters provoking close divisions "in Parliament."

These questions are a science in themselves — a philosophy
that is not to be summarized and dismissed in a few words.
If, as is more than likely, the next fifty years sees England
slowly revert to her condition in Saxon times and become
an essentially pastoral country — a land of gardens, and
orchards, and meadows, for all of them, statistics tell us, are
slowly spreading while arable land is dwindling — then there
is no reason why game of some kinds should not increase
and become even more valuable than at present. This points
the importance of the great issues which come under con-
sideration when a populous nation with an inborn love of
fresh air and field sports legislates for the delicate and
susceptible fauna with which Nature has endowed its terri-
tory. There might well be. a chair of ornithology amongst
us, some learned and yet practical professorship where
wisdom and observation on field matters might accumulate ;
but failing this a better general popular knowledge of game
and wild birds is very highly desirable, not only in the
curiculums of Cam and Isis, but even in village shrines of
learning, and also the grimy benches of city schools where
youthful devotees lisp their first homage to that triple-
headed diety, the three B's.

The humbler sportsman's points of touch with legislation
effecting him are few and simple. He needs his ten shilling
licence " to carry and use a gun," obtained easily in England
and Scotland, and with a little more formality in Ireland.
This equips him legally, and between the 1st of August and
the 1st of April he may shoot to his heart's content on. the
seas and estuaries ; between high-water mark and low-water
mark of mean tides (with some few and objectionable ex-
ceptions) on every beach all round the kingdom ; as also on
certain waste lands and warrens. The measure that limits
his shooting season to the period of the year when birds are

GROUSE MOOES AND DEER FORESTS. 261

not breeding is short and concise. The following are its
chief sections : —

THE WILD BIRDS' PROTECTION ACT.

§ 3. Any person who between the 1st of March and
the 1st of August in any year after the passing of this
Act shall knowingly and wilfully shoot or attempt to
shoot, or shall use any boat for the purpose of shooting or
causing to be shot, any wild bird, or shall use any lime,
trap, snare, net, or other instrument for the purpose of
taking any wild bird, or shall expose or offer for sale, or
shall have in his control or possession after the 15th day
of March, any wild bird recently killed or taken, shall, on
conviction of any such offence before any two justices of the
peace in England and Wales or Ireland, or before the sheriff
in Scotland, in the case of any wild bird which is included
in the schedule hereunto annexed, forfeit and pay for every
such bird in respect of which an offence has been committed
a sum not exceeding one pound, and, in the case of any
other wild bird, shall for a first offence be reprimanded
and discharged on payment of costs, and for every subsequent
offence forfeit and pay for every such wild bird in respect of
which an offence is committed a sum of money not exceeding
five shillings, in addition to the costs, unless such person
shall prove that the said wild bird was either killed or taken
or bought or received during the period in which such wild
bird could be legally killed or taken, or from some person
residing out of the United Kingdom. This section shall not
apply to the owner or occupier of any land, or to any person
authorized by the owner or occupier of any land, killing or
taking any wild bird on such land not included in the
schedule hereto annexed.

§ 6. All offences mentioned in this Act which shall be
committed within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty shall be
deemed to be offences of the same nature and liable to the

262 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

same punishments as if they had been committed upon any
land in the United Kingdom, and may be dealt with, inquired
of, tried, and determined in any country or place in the
United Kingdom in which the offender shall be apprehended,
or be in custody, or be summoned, in the same manner in all
respects as if such offences had been actually committed in
that country or place ; and in any information or conviction
for any such offence the offence may be averred to have been
committed ** on the high seas." And in Scotland any offence
committed against this Act on the sea coast or at sea beyond
the ordinary jurisdiction of any sheriff, justice, or justices of
the peace, shall be held to have been committed in any
county abutting on such sea coast or adjoining such sea, and
may be tried and punished accordingly.

§ 9. The operation of this Act shall not extend to the
Island of Saint Kilda, and it shall be lawful for one of her
Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State as +-o Great Britain,
and for the Lord Lieutenant as to Ireland, where it shall
appear desirable, from time to time, upon the application of
the justices in quarter sessions assembled in any county to
exempt any such county or part or parts thereof, as to all or
any wild birds, from the operation of this Act ; and every
such order shall be published and may be proved in the
manner provided in the preceding section.

SCHEDULE.

American quail. Kittiwake. Sealark.

Auk. Lapwing. Seamew.

Avocet. Loon. Sea parrot.

Bee-eater. Mallard. Sea swallow.

Bittern. Marrot. Shearwater.

Bonxie. Merganser. Shelldrake.

Colin. Murre. Shoveller.

Cornish chough. Night hawk. Skua.

Coulterneb. Night jar. Smew.

GROUSE MOOES AND DEER FORESTS.

263

Cuckoo.
Curlew.
Diver.
Dotterel.

Nightingale.
Oriole.
Owl.
Ox bird.

Snipe.
Solan goose.
Spoonbill.
Stint.

Dunbird.
Dunlin.

Oyster catcher.
Peewit.

Stone curlew.
Stonehatch.

Eider duck.
Fern owl.
Fulmar.

Petrel.
Phalarope.
Plover.

Summer snipe.
Tarrock.
Teal.

Gannet.
Goatsucker.

Ploverspage.
Pochard.

Tern.
Thicknee-.

Godwit.
Goldfinch.
Grebe.

Puffin.
Purre.
Razorbill.

Tystey.
Whaap.
Whimbrel.

Greenshank.
Guillemot.

Redshank.
Reeve or Ruff.

Widgeon.
Wild duck.

Gull (except Black-
backed gull) .
Hoopoe.
Kingfisher.

Roller.
Sanderling.
Sandpiper.
Scout.

Willock.
Woodcock.
Woodpecker.

By a rider to the above Act, added in 1881 (44 and 45
Viet. cap. 51), the "possessing" of protected birds in the
close season is defined, and the lark is very properly added
to the Schedule.

Whereas under section three of the Wild Birds' Protec-
tion Act, 1880, a person who within the period therein
mentioned exposes or offers for sale, or has in his control or
possession any wild bird recently killed or taken is liable
to certain penalties therein mentioned, subject to the follow-
ing exception, " unless such person shall prove that the said
wild bird was either killed or taken, or bought or received
during the period in which such wild bird could be legally
killed or taken, or from some person residing out of the
United Kingdom : "

264 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

And whereas doubts have arisen with respect to the
construction of the above-recited enactment, and it is ex-
pedient to remove such doubts :

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords
Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present
Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as
follows :

1. The above-recited exception in section three of the
Wild Birds' Protection Act, 1880, shall be repealed, and in
lieu thereof the following enactment shall have effect :

A person shall not be liable to be convicted under section
three of the Wild Birds' Protection Act, 1880, of exposing
or offering for sale, or having the control or possession of,
any wild bird recently killed, if he satisfies the court before
whom he is charged, either —

(1) That the killing of such wild bird, if in a place to
which the said Act extends, was lawful at the time when
and by the person by whom it was killed; or

(2) That the wild bird was killed in some place to which
the said Act does not extend, and the fact that the wild bird
was imported from some place to which the said Act does
not extend shall, until the contrary be proved, be evidence
that the bird was killed in some place to which the said Act
does not extend.

2. The Schedule to the Wild Birds' Protection Act, 1880,
shall be read and construed as if the word " Lark " had been
inserted therein.

From these extracts the whole effect of the enactment
can be judged, and it is, with this help, within the power of
all who may be friendly disposed to the birds to assist in
their protection.

Yet, simple as this " bill " is, we are constantly told it is
full of errors of omission and commission. Some pro-
fessional shooters declare its provisions may easily be evaded,

GEOUSE MOORS AND DEEE FORESTS. 265

with a bitterness, however, which suggests the measure to
be singularly effective and useful in their part of the
country ! Then the flapper shooter says his young friends
are strong on the wing and over-experienced on the thres-
hold of August. He would like to get at them by the
middle of July at the latest. The big gunner, in his punt
off the Ipswich or Harwich flats, cannot understand why
Parliament should cork up his four-bore just as the spring
flight is on, and the ruffs and reeves are gambolling in an
enticing manner on the marshes, and long strings of duck
and wimbrel pass continually overhead. He argues without
much logic that as they are going northward to "the
foreigners " he ought to be allowed to take all he can reach
before their departure. But far otherwise thinks the owner
of decoy and snipe bogs. If all the birds do go northward
in the spring he says it is chiefly owing to that hideous
banging of seafowl ordnance going on " off Harwich."
There was amorousness in the quack of the mallards and
the bleating of the fen snipe even before the sallow buds
were silky in early March, or the king-cups had put out
a single new leaf to try the temperature of " the month that
looks two ways." The better plan, according to this authority,
would be to begin the close time with February — and
especially as regards everything which puntsmen like to
shoot. Mr. Morris, again, wants the gulls protected until
September, and brings a strong case in his favour ; but
'Arry, on the other hand, particularly desires them to be free
food for powder and his borrowed gun when his August
holiday turns him out to his own inclinations.

The Leadenhall poultrymen comfort themselves in know-
ing they may sell game from over seas when the sale of the
same birds taken in Great Britain is forbidden. But this
irks the tender ornithological compassion of men like the
late Frank Buckland. On one occasion he wrote : " I have
been consulted on a case which in the spring affects most
seriously the supply of food to the public — namely, the

266 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

importation and sale of capercailzie, blackcock, and ptarmigan
in the English markets. Some game and poultry salesmen,
of Liverpool, were summoned in March for selling these
birds, and a nominal fine of a penny a head, and costs, was
imposed. The penalties were inflicted under an Act of
Parliament passed in the reign of William IV., cap. 32.
This Act does not mention capercailzie ; whether, however,
the magistrates imposed fines respecting them I do not know.
They, however, considered that the Act applied to birds
imported from other countries. I have been asked to give
my opinion upon this subject ; I do so as a naturalist, but
not as a lawyer. The London shops are at this moment full
of capercailzie, blackcock, and ptarmigan. These are im-
ported, via Hull, from Norway and Sweden, and enormous
numbers of them are sent over during March and April from
Bergen, Drontheim, and other ports on the west coast of
Norway. Two questions now arise. First, is there any
close time in Norway and Sweden for these birds; and,
secondly, what is the actual condition of the birds as regards
their state of (as we should say, if it were a question of
salmon), spawning — i.e. nidification ? I have made it my
business to examine the internal anatomy of a female
capercailzie, of a male and female blackcock, and of two
female and one male ptarmigan, the birds themselves being
much better witnesses as regards facts than anything recorded
in books. I find in every case that the ovaries are exceed-
ingly minute, and that, therefore, the birds are not yet near
their breeding time. I find it recorded that the capercailzie
go in packs during the winter, disperse in the spring, and
nest about the beginning of May. The ptarmigan pair early
in the spring, the eggs are begun to be laid in June. The
blackcock nest in May. The above applies to the British
Islands, the breeding in Norway and Sweden is probably
later. As regards the law : In 1871 a most valuable report
(C. 401) was presented to Parliament, giving the laws and
regulations relative to the protection of game in eleven

GROUSE MOOES AND DEER FORESTS. 267

foreign countries. From this I learn that " for Norway and
Sweden the legal season for killing deer, reindeer, caper-
cailzie, hare, blackcock, hazel hen, and ptarmigan is from
the 10th of August to the 15th of March." Provisions are
also made as regards the young of useful birds or animals
and the law of trespass. Such enormous quantities of game
birds have been, and are now imported from Norway and
Sweden to London, Liverpool, and other large towns, that
I think we ought, as Englishmen, to inform the authorities
of these countries of what is going on, in order that they
may make inquiries into the effects that this spring slaughter
may have upon their stock of game birds, and also into the
manner by means of which such large numbers of these
naturally shy birds are caught, especially as shot marks are
rarely, if ever, found upon them."

Farmers hate many of those rapacious little songsters
which compassionate ladies love, and naturalists and market-
gardeners have never yet smoked a peace pipe together over
the contents of a bullfinch or tomtit's stomach.

But this, at least, may be taken as certain, that these
beneficent Acts are doing good on the whole ; and this is,
perhaps, as much as could be expected.

Regarding game, properly so called, there is as much
contention and diversity of opinion. It is some satisfaction,
however, to know this is no new thing, and that every
civilized country on the face of the globe is protecting its
more valuable bird life in maugre of political crotchet-
mongers. These amiable gentry seize upon game as " the
special luxury of the wealthy," and, consequently, a fit
subject for their spleen. They would, if they could, sap the
country gentleman's life of all its attractions, expatriate him,
and distribute covert and woodland amongst their needy and
dissolute following.

In 1831 the old territorial right in game was abolished,
and with this was quenched all substantial grievances of
these agitators, since everything worth shooting was

268 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

henceforth at command of any one who cared to pay for
the privilege in the most ordinary commercial fashion.
Bat this measure, intended probably to diminish poaching
by underselling the wood thief in his illegal booty, was
ineffectual. It doubled the number of shooters, and swept
away game from those freelands where it had hitherto
existed in the security of the ample hedgerows of an early
period, harried by few village firearms.

On the 1st of September, 1827, Lord Althorp, shooting
by himself over unpreserved land in Warwickshire, where
any one might shoot «who pleased, killed twenty brace of
birds to his own gun ; a few days afterwards nineteen, one
day fifteen, and two other days eleven brace. Such un-
covenanted sport is, alas, utterly out of date ; game has been
accumulated into centres, and with its abundance in known
localities and semi-domestication comes that chance of great
booty to the poacher which Sir Robert Peel, alone of the
statesmen of his time, foresaw when the thin end of
the wedge was introduced by a well-meaning Liberalism in
1831. Then, again, the Rating Act of 1874, for the first
time taxed sporting rights as such ; and more recently Sir
William Harcourt's Bill gives to the tenant the right of
killing the hares and rabbits on his own farm, any agreement
with his landlord to the contrary notwithstanding : that is
to say, that no covenant on the occupier's part to reserve
the ground game for the proprietor can any longer be
enforced by law. The game in England, be it remembered,
whether four-footed or winged, had always belonged to the
tenant, and only ceased to be his when he transferred it by
agreement to his landlord. This transfer he is now, as far
as ground game is concerned, forbidden to make, and can no
longer therefore do what he will with his own.

A clause in this latter enactment makes it necessary to
set rabbit traps (by the. tenant who does not own the game
shooting) only in rabbit holes, or runs. A learned judge,
I notice, has given it as his opinion that a " run," or burrow,

GROUSE MOOES AND DEER FORESTS. 269

ends with a line drawn perpendicularly from its upper outer
edge.

Thus, as matters stand at present, hares and rabbits may
be shot by the occupier of the land, while pheasants,
partridges, and a few other species of legal "game," are the
property of the person in whose hands the shooting is.

Living, much as I have done, in various counties, and
seeing, as it has been my good fortune to do, various kinds of
game manors, from the roughest to the most scientific,
I do not think that there is a shadow of justification for the
outcry against game preserving, except perhaps on the single
count that it encourages poaching. To suppress it on this
account would be as reasonable as to mollify the nocturnal
burglar by smelting down your silver spoons, or to content
yourself with one change of linen per annum out of sympathy
with the wardrobes of the Great Unwashed! As it has been
well said by a reviewer of these laws : " What really
underlies the Radical outcry is, not compassion for the
ill-used agriculturist, but jealousy of the territorial magnate.
It is really the sporting right, and not the game, which all
the hubbub is about. The farmer, when he grumbles at
all, grumbles for want of the shooting. The righteous
indignation of the Radical is really inspired, not by the
sight of rabbits nibbling the wheat, but of a country gentle-
man with a gun, suggesting to his diseased imagination
ideas of Front de Boeuf or William Rufus, and sending him
back to the commercial room of his hotel to sta.rtle all who
hear him with his pictures of rural tyranny, patrician
insolence, downtrodden serfs, and all the other well-known
abominations of ' landlordism.' "

The agricultural labourer of the day has no doubt
substantial troubles. When he is told that there is a panacea
for all these in the tender and effusive affection of Socialistic
agitators, he is cozened, against his homely good sense, into
supporting the side of big promises, and, perplexed by the
confusion of the day's burning questions, hearkens to the

270 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

teaching of Will o' the Wisps. To begin with, his stomach
is empty, and this is a condition utterly at variance with the
cheerful belief in those good times to-morrow which some
counsel him to accept in place of dinner to-day. He wants
well-paid work, that he may live as comfortably as he lived
thirty years ago ; not the miserable occasional job — a
mockery of steady employment — too often marking the
condition of the market in rural districts. The labour
representatives, or rather the representatives of labour
discontent, tell him that wealth is stagnant in the social
spheres above, and if the land is to be fertilized, it must be
by such a golden shower as would result from puncturing
the money-bags of the wealthy. The attributes of opulence,
aggressive everywhere in this fair and delightful land, seem
to endorse the crude logic of these democrats. Even such
follies as " game for every one," or " three acres and a cow,"
are not above the hungry wonder of Hodge, whose little
ones, in a land overflowing with milk and honey, pine on
" skimmed Simpson " as blue as ever disgusted a cockney,
and unpaid-for bread from speculative village bakeries "as
dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage " which Jacques
scorned — and far less wholesome ! Nor is it politic to whittle
those privileges which were but unquestioned rights of
"rude forefathers of the hamlets." Those countrymen are
but mortal after all, and are full of the passions of their
kind, the egotism, and even the pride which Pope suggests
marks a fool equally in fustian or broadcloth ; they feel the
tight grip which modern competition has put upon every
scrap of land, more, perhaps, than some of their friends
know; and it saps their belief in the kindly fellowship of
those above them when the valleys blossom with forbidding
notice boards, and coppice and common, where children
played and winter firewood came from, glisten in the
sunshine a maze of steel-barbed fencing.

This is the tune to which the agitator of more pay and
less work for horny-handed sons of toil tunes his fitful lute.

GROUSE MOOES AND DEER FORESTS. 271

He whispers in the ear of any one who will listen to him that
while the squire basks by the glow of Wallsend fires, his
good friend the cotter — let the winter be never so Siberian —
must not roam the park and garner the fallen timber that
lies rotting there. Why, even water has been misappro-
priated, explains the virtuously indignant champion of the
rustic, pointing the finger of hatred at hamlets where the
village pump has been run dry that great folk may make
ponds on their front lawns for foreign wild -fowl ! The shafts
in his quiver are many, and he uses them adroitly ; he points
to the Irish labourers who swarm across the shallow seas
and send down the value of the Englishman's labour even
in his own fields. If Home Rule were granted, is one argu-
ment among many, these frugal gentry would keep within
their own bogs and cotton-grass wastes, and that alone
would be a strong advantage. All this hoodwinks the
youngest among our hinds. The elders among them, as
far as we have observed, are more circumspect in their
opinions. They hear without enthusiasm tall talk of abolish-
ing game laws and throwing open coverts to general
pillage; the more thoughtful know that all the pheasants
and partridges in the kingdom would not go twice round
amongst our population, or flavour the rustic's evening pottage
even for a week. NOT are they in favour of general con-
fiscation who live by the judiciously placed capital of land-
owners, and the ceaseless need of all classes for corn and beef.
What those who stand by the land do need to keep them
in the political way they should go, is, firstly, "better
times," which no party, alas, can create; and, secondly, the
countenance and goodwill of those whom chance has dressed
in a little brief authority. A landowner indeed, we strongly
feel, and the hind feels too, who lodges his horses better
than his husbandmen, and loves his orchids better than those
chubby children who are to serve and live by the side of his
heir, no more deserves to legislate for his district than he
deserves to be honoured in it.

272 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

The farmer, again, may dislike to see total strangers
perambulating his beans and clover, but " cussin " partridges
or the shooting tenant is poor agriculture at best, and what
he wants is not what the Radicals prescribe.

Mr. Brodie Innes* admirable sentences, prefaced to this
chapter, shows where the shoe pinches in the north, and the
real position of the question there. For myself, I will not
attempt to epitomise the fine subtilties of " 1 and 2 Will.
IV. cap. 32," or "24 and 25 Viet. cap. 96," or, indeed, any
other chapter or heading whatever, though there is a goodly
pile of tomes devoted to this literature at my elbow. Already
there is a keen desire on foot amongst the sensible yeomanry
of the midlands to amend the Ground Game Act, and
give the much persecuted hares a close time. Winged
game was never more plentiful or better appreciated than
it was last season ; and if the agriculturists can be got
to see that the abolishment of game is but a selfish propa-
ganda prettily bound — a plausible repetition of Metternich's
formula, " Ote-toi de la, que je m'y mette," all will be well,
and we shall drop no substantial possessions for very shadowy
and more than mythical advantages.

( 273 )

CHAPTER XII.

GAME LAWS ABROAD*

GERMANY.

As the law now stands, any person in Prussia owning
not less than two hundred English acres of land together,
and who procures annually a game certificate at a cost of
three shillings '(in Hanover it costs six shillings, and in
Hesse nine shillings), has an unrestricted right to kill
all game upon his own property, and the same right is

* List of Reports (0. 310, 0/6-1871).

Country.

Residence.

Name.

Date.

DENMARK

Copenhagen ...

Mr. Strachey

November 8, 1870.

NETHERLANDS

The Hague ...

Vice-Admiral Harris

January 28, 1871.

PERSIA

Tehran

Mr. Jenner'...

October 8, 1870.

PORTUGAL

Lisbon

Mr. Doria

December 28, 1870.

PRUSSIA

Berlin

Mr. Petre

February 6 1871

RUSSIA ...

St. Petersburg

Mr. Rumbold

February 2, 1871.

SPAIN

Madrid

Mr. Ffrench

December 12, 1870.

SWEDEN AND NORWAY

Stockholm ...

Mr. Jerningham ...

November 30, 1870.

SWITZERLAND

Berne

Mr. Bonar

September 24, 1870.

TURKEY

Therapia

Mr. Moore

August 30, 1870.

UNITED STATES

Washington ...

Sir E. Thornton ...

January 23, 1871.

274 BIRD LIFE JN ENGLAND.

extended to all enclosed lands of whatever extent they may
be. Unenclosed properties of less than two hundred acres
do not entitle their owners to kill the game on their own
lands ; these revert, for all sporting purposes, to the com-
mune in which they are situated, and form a common
shooting district. The communal authorities are bound
either to appoint a gamekeeper to shoot over the district,
or to let the shooting, or to leave it in abeyance ; in either
of the two former cases the profits derived from it are
divided between the owners of the lands which form the
district. An exception to this rule is made in the case of
properties of less than two hundred acres which are situated
in the midst of, or are partially surrounded by a forest of
more than two thousand acres in extent, which is in the
possession of a single owner. In such cases the owner of
the land, instead of annexing it, as he would be compelled
to do under ordinary circumstances, to the communal shoot-
ing district, is bound to let the shooting to the proprietor
of the surrounding forest. Should the latter decline to
avail himself of this right, the landowner may kill the game
himself; or, if they are unable to agree as to the terms of
the lease, the landrath is called in to arbitrate. The right of
shooting upon all lands owned by corporations, or by more
than three joint proprietors, must either be delegated to a
gamekeeper or leased to a tenant.

As regards compensation for damages caused by game,
it will be seen by a reference to the 25th Section of the law
that no legal claim whatever can be preferred in Prussia for
indemnity for any loss or injury incurred under this head.
Under the old laws of Prussia, at a time when the right
of shooting was separated from the possession of the soil,
a landowner whose crops were damaged by the excessive
preservation of game, was entitled to compensation for the
injury inflicted ; but this is now no longer the case, although
the law sanctions or enjoins certain indirect means of counter-
acting, or rather of mitigating, the evil.

GAME LAWS ABROAD.

275

By another important provision of this game law, the
sale of home or foreign game is prohibited from fourteen
days after the expiration of the season, during which game
may be lawfully killed.

The provinces where game most abounds, excluding the
newly annexed territories, are Prussia, Silesia, Brandenburg,
and Saxony. Herr von Hagen estimates as follow the
quantity of game annually killed in the provinces of Prussia,
together with the number of pounds of meat which it produces
and its money value : —

No.

IbB.

Ibs. Silber-

groschen

Bed deer 4,288 at

120

= 514,560 at 2£

Fallow deer 2,546 „

50

127,300 2£

Roe deer 14,204 „

25

255,100 4

Wild boars 2,358 „

60

141,480 3

Elks 54 „

250

13,700 l\

Hares 1,097,316 „

5

5,486,580 3

Partridges 1,311,134 „

1

983,351 „ 5

Pheasants 2,373 „

2

4,746 „ 10

Black game 1,340,,

2

2,680 „ 7J

Hazel game (" Hazelwild ") 992 „

i

744 „ 10

Snipe 13,132 „

6,566 „ 10

Wild ducks 16,454 „

if

24,681 „ 3

Rabbits 8,308 „

2

16,616 „ 1

Fieldfares ("Krammetsvogel") „

** schock " of three score 4,824 „

15

72,360 „ 2

Total

7750.464

Of the value of

840,752 thalers.

To the money value is to be added —

11,524 foxes, at 1 thaler the skin

11,524 thalers

643 badgers, at 2 thalers, ditto

1,286

Hides and skins of red deer, at 1^ thaler

5,717

„ fallow deer, § thaler ..

1,697

„ roe deer, \ thaler

2,841

„ elks, 3 thalers

162

„ wild boars, \ thaler

1,179

Hare and rabbit skins, 3 groschen ...

110,562 „

Total value 975,720

Equal to £146,358 sterling.

§ 1. The fence periods are : —

1. For the elk, from December 1 to August 11.

276 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

2. For male red and fallow deer, from March 1 to the end
of June.

3. For female red and fallow deer and fawns, from
February 1 to October 15.

4. For roebucks, from March 1 to the end of April.

5. For does, from December 15 to October 15.

6. For roe calves (fawns), the whole year.

7. For badgers, from December 1 to the end of September.

8. For capercailzie (cocks) (" Auerhahne "), blackcocks
(" Birchhahne "), and cock pheasants, from June 1 to
August 31.

9. For wild duck, from April 1 to June 30 ; the fence
time may be abolished in particular districts by the provincial
governments.

10. For bustards, snipe, wild swans, and all other fen
birds and water fowl, with the exception of wild geese and
herons, from May 1 to June 30.

11. For partridges, from December 1 to August 31.

12. For hen capercailzies, grey hens, and hen pheasants,
hazel game (" Hazelwild " or " Gelinottes "), quails, and hares,
from February 1 to August 31.

13. It is forbidden all the year round to snare partridges,
hares, and roe deer.

All other descriptions of game, including cormorants,
divers (" Taucher "), may be taken or killed the whole year
round. The young of red, fallow, and roe deer are to be
considered as fawns (" Kalbe ") up to the last day of the
month of December following their birth.

§ 2. With a view to the protection of agriculture and to
the preservation of game, the provincial governments are
authorized to fix otherwise each year by special order the
period at which the fence season for the description of game
specified in §§ 7, 11, and 12 is to commence and close; but
so that the fence time shall not commence or close more than
fourteen days before or after the time fixed by § 1.

§ 3. The legal rights which exist in particular districts in

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 277

respect to killing game even during the fence time, as a pro-
tection against damages caused by game, are not affected by
the present law.

§ 4. The present law does not apply to killing game in
enclosed parks. But the sale of game killed in such parks
during the fence time is prohibited in conformity with the
provisions of § 7.

§ 5. The following are the fines incurred for killing or
taking game during the fence periods, as also for trapping
or snaring game : —

Tbalers. £ *. d.

1. For an elk 50 = 7 10 0

2. For a red deer 30 4 10 0

3. For a fallow deer 20 300

4. For a roe deer 10 1 10 0

5. For a badger 5 0 15 0

6. For a capercailzie (cock or hen) ... 10 1 10 0

7. For a blackcock, or hen 3 090

8. Forahazelcock("Hazelhahn")or hen 3 090

9. For a pheasant 10 1 10 0

10. For a swan 10 1 10 0

11. For a bustard 3 090

12. For a hare 4 0 12 0

13. For a partridge 2 060

14. For a snipe, wild duck, or any other

species of water fowl included under

the head of game 2 060

§ 6. It is forbidden to take up tbe eggs or brood of game
birds, and the prohibition extends even to persons to whom
the shooting belongs ; the latter, however (in particular the
owners of pheasant preserves), are authorized to take up
the eggs which are laid in the open, in order to have them
hatched.

It is equally forbidden to take away plovers' and seagulls'
eggs after April 30.

§ 7. Any one hawking, or exposing, or offering for sale
in shops, markets, or in any other way, game, whether entire
or cat up, but not cooked, the taking or killing of which is
prohibited at the time, fourteen days after the commencement
of the fence time, or any one assisting in such sale, incurs,

278 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

besides the confiscation of the game, a fine not exceeding
30 thalers, to be applied to the benefit of the poor-box of the
commune in which the offence is committed.

RUSSIA.

Paragraph 535 of the regulations respecting shooting
states in general terms that every landowner has the right
to shoot on his own lands, and on lands rented from the
crown (" Kazonnia Zemli"), subject to certain restrictions
as to the time of year when such right may be exercised.

Par. 536 states that shootings on the lands of others is
permissible only with the written authorization of the owner.

Pars. 537 and 538 prohibit the driving of beasts and birds
out of lands belonging to others, as also damaging places to
which birds resort on their flight ("ptitchi privali"), or
removing and carrying away traps, snares, etc., used for
catching birds and beasts. Birds' nests are not to be destroyed,
nor the eggs carried off. The only exception applies to the
nests of birds of prey.

From 1st of March to St. Peter's day (29th June, o.s.) it
is strictly forbidden to shoot birds or beasts, both on private
lands and crown lands, or to catch game in pits, nets, nooses,
traps, or by the means of any other instrument whatsoever.
In the governments of St. Petersburg, Novgorod, and Pskoff,
the period of prohibition is extended to the 15th of July, o.s.,
and an exception is made in respect of blackcock and caper-
cailzie, which may be lawfully shot in the spring during
calling-time. With a view to prevent the wanton destruction
of game in spring time, it is severely prohibited to carry into
the towns and there to sell any kind of game from the 1st of
March to the 1st of July, o.s. The town and district police,
as well as the starosts or other village authorities, are bound
to see this rule carried out. It may, however, be observed
here that it would not appear to be successfully enforced.

Pars. 545 and 546 state that wild beasts and birds of prey

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 279

are excepted from the above prohibition, and that it is lawful
to destroy them in any manner or at any time of year.
Within the prohibited period above mentioned, only land-
owners, however, and the gamekeepers in their employ, are
allowed to destroy wild beasts on their private lands without
first giving notice to the local police. All other persons in-
tending to destroy wild beasts (such as bears, lynxes, wolves,
foxes, etc.), within that period, must give preliminary notice
of such intention.

Par. 763 treats of shooting licences. These are said to be
required of all persons shooting in the neighbourhood of the
capitals (St. Petersburg and Moscow), even during the law-
ful shooting season. They are issued by the department of
the Ober-Jagermeister, and any person found shooting without
one is liable to fines, and in case of non-payment of such fines,
to the confiscation of his gun and dog or dogs. The evasion
of this regulation out of the shooting season exposes the
offender to the confiscation of all his shooting implements, in
addition to the fines in money laid down in Article 1172 of
the Statute of Punishments. All these fines and confiscations
to go to the Jagermeister department aforesaid.

SWEDEN AND NORWAY.

On leasehold property the tenant is entitled to kill game,
unless it be otherwise stipulated in the lease.

In the northern provinces much land is totally unsur-
veyed, and unapportioned to any one ; there exists also there
what is termed " Overlopp's land," or land in excess of what
forms the proper area of a homestead, as determined by the
official survey. This latter land falls by law to the crown,
and is employed in augmenting such homesteads as are
deficient, and in creating new ones.

On these two descriptions of land the right to kill game
and wild beasts is enjoyed by every one; subject, of course,
to certain restrictions.

280 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

The destruction of elk, however, is here again prohibited,
without the royal sanction.

On disputed lands, which are still under litigation, neither
of the contending parties is allowed to pursue game, although
vermin and noxious animals may be killed.

All game wounded by the owner, or persons authorized
by him, on his own property, may be pursued and taken
upon a neighbouring property; and should the animal so
hunted be a bear, wolf, lynx, or glutton, the above provision
holds good, although it be not previously wounded.

Any person who has surrounded and marked down a bear
in its den during winter shall enjoy the sole right of pursuing
and killing it ; and no one, not even the owner of the land,
shall be entitled to disturb the beast, or to prevent the chase.

Should any person undertake to destroy any of the above-
mentioned wild animals in any other manner on land not
his own, but where they are known to exist, he must give
notice of his intention to the landlord, who is. entitled to
participate in the hunt ; but in no case can he prevent its
taking place, the notifier appropriating the animal, and any
one, no matter who, meeting with beasts of prey on any
land whatever is entitled to kill and keep them.

The following are considered, according to Swedish law,
to be vermin and beasts of prey : bears, wolves, lynxes,
gluttons, foxes, martens, otters, seals, eagles, eagle owls,
hawks, and falcons.

Certain rewards are to be paid from the public treasury
for the destruction of beasts of prey : fifty dollars (nearly
£3) for a bear ; twenty-five dollars for a wolf or lynx ; arid
ten dollars for a glutton ; the destruction of the young of
these animals receiving the same recompense.

The legal seasons for killing game are as follows : —

Elk may be killed from 10th of August to 1st of October.

Beaver from 10th of July to 1st of November.

Partridge and grouse from 1st of September to 1st of
November.

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 281

Swans, wild ducks, eider-ducks, snipe, and woodcock,
from 10th of July to 16th of March.

Deer, reindeer, capercailzie, hare, blackcock, hazel-hen,
and ptarmigan, from 10th of August to 15th of March.

The above are the seasons as established by the latest
law on the subject in 1869 ; but local regulations exist in
the various magisterial communities throughout the country,
which modify its provisions in a slight degree, and these
lengthen or shorten the legal periods, according to the habits
of the different kinds of game which frequent the several
localities.

As may be readily conceived, these are widely different in
a country extending over so many parallels of latitude as
Sweden.

The eggs of feathered game are also protected by law ;
it being illegal to rob any nest, or to destroy the young of
any of the above-mentioned animals, before the 10th of July,
or of any other useful bird or beast, before the 10th of
August.

There is one important difference between the British
and Swedish game laws ; for, in any enclosed hunting-
ground or park, it is lawful, at all times of the year for those
who enjoy the right from the owner, to kill any species of
game or wild animal found therein, so that the above regula-
tion as to season virtually only affects those persons who
pursue game upon unenclosed land.

It is not permitted to offer game for sale during the pro-
hibited periods of the year, unless legal proof can be given
that it has been killed lawfully, or upon enclosed land.

Snares, with spears attached, and spring-guns, for the
destruction of game, are illegal ; and elk may not be hunted
on skates, or taken in pitfalls.

Ordinary traps and snares for killing game and wild
animals, cannot be used by a person on land not his own,
without the consent of the owner ; and they may in no case
be set out between the 31st of May and 1st of October ; and

282 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

when laid out, they must be guarded from the approach of
domestic animals. Notice of the intention to use such traps,
etc., being read out in the parish church once a month until
their removal.

Persons shooting or hunting any of the above-named
animals at unlawful times are liable to a fine of from ten
to two hundred dollars ; and should the animal be an elk, or
beaver, the fine is to be not under one hundred and fifty
dollars.

The same penalties apply to persons offering game for
sale at illegal times.

Any person pursuing ordinary game at illegal periods
may be deprived of his game, and also of his guns, dogs, and
sporting appliances, by any person discovering him, and the
property may be retained until the case shall have been
judicially investigated.

Should the offence thus committed be solely against the
rights of private individuals, they alone shall be entitled to
prosecute ; but should any of the legal enactments for the
benefit of the public have been transgressed, the offender
shall be prosecuted by the public accuser, or by a member
of the Board of Woods and Forests.

One-third of all fines inflicted under the game laws
shall belong to the crown, two-thirds going to the informer.

Any one unable to pay the fines is liable to a propor-
tionate period of imprisonment according to the Swedish
Penal Code.

All forfeited game t is to become the property of the
informer.

The above laws are stringently enforced in most of the
provinces where game exists in large quantities ; and the
clauses relating to the preservation of elk and beaver are
but seldom infringed, the highest penalty which the law
permits being in all cases exacted.

It will be observed that no game licence or gun-tax is
payable.

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 283

It is no uncommon thing for large hunting-parties to
come together for the destruction of bears, wolves, and
lynxes infesting the districts of Yermland and Norrland,
and which become a source of annoyance and even danger
to the scanty population of those northern provinces.

Bears, indeed, are not frequently killed except on such
occasions, and the reward offered by the Government is in
these cases not given, the personal danger incurred being so
much lessened.

Wolves, however, in severe winters, approach the large
towns in search of food, and the sums paid for their capture
are often considerable.

HOLLAND.

The right of shooting, coursing, fishing, or any other
kind of sportr is attached in this country exclusively to the
ownership of the land ; the game is looked on as a natural
production of the land, in the same way that the fish is
regarded as a natural production of the water, the heather
of the heath, or the tree of the forest. Where the land
belongs to the private individual, the game which is on it
is private property ; and where the land is the property of
the State, to the State belongs also the game upon it. And
in like manner, as it is in the power of the landowner to let
out his property to another to be cultivated, while he reserves
to himself or concedes to a third party the right to cut the
timber, so he is at liberty also to introduce clauses into the
lease reserving the right of shooting the game himself or
leasing the shooting to another.

The principle that game is the natural property of the
owner of the soil is so thoroughly recognized that the legisla-
ture has practically decided that any alienation of the one
from the other is an unnatural one ; and, in cases where such
alienation has occurred, has given to the proprietor the right
of shooting, even though in direct opposition to a written
covenant.

234: BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

But although the right of a landed proprietor to the
game on his estate is regarded as a natural and an inalien-
able one, it is in its nature imperfect. Though his ownership
is in one sense absolute, the mode in which he may derive
advantage from it is restricted. Numerous regulations
exist, having for their object the preservation of the game,
and with such he must comply. The shooting season is
limited in length ; shooting on Sunday or at night is strictly
prohibited, as also during those times when snow is lying
on the ground, or the land is flooded ; the mode of capturing
or killing game is strictly denned, nets, traps, and snares
being in nearly all cases prohibited ; the number of dogs to
be employed in coursing in the same field, and the amount
of slaughter to be committed in the same battue are also
limited. It is likewise forbidden to transport or sell game
during close time.

The State takes upon itself, to a great extent, the duty
of preventing poaching. This it does with the aid of various
regulations, such as preventing persons other than the owners
shooting on land without written permission from the owners,
or even being found in a field or wood with a gun ; and,
again, making it an offence to convey game from one place
to another except by the public road or footpath, or without
a written certificate showing the means by which the game
was obtained. Even in the case of game introduced from
abroad, it cannot be removed from the port of entry without
a certificate of its foreign origin.

The right of shooting cannot be alienated from the owner-
ship of the property.

Art. 11. The committee of the provincial states shall
annually fix the time in each province for the opening and
closing of the shooting season, as well as the days of the
week when small or large game may be killed, and the
commissary in the province shall give notice thereof at least
eight days before the opening and the closing.

In like manner the committee of the provincial states

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 285

shall decide, according as the condition of the game or local
circumstances require, whether shooting any particular game
. . . shall be forbidden or limited, either over the entire
province or in certain districts, as well as how many head of
large game, male or female, may be killed, and how many
hares may be shot or taken in one day by one person, or how
many in a single battue ; and furthermore, they shall appoint
the time during which the decoy ducks shall be shut up.

Art. 12. No licence or other special authority required —

(a) To permit the owner or other rightfully empowered
person to shoot in pleasure grounds, gardens or other grounds
enclosed by walls, screens, fences or canals.

(6) To permit the shooting of destructive birds in gardens
or orchards by the owner or other rightful person, or by his
order.

Art. 18. Shooting is prohibited —

(a) On Sundays.

(6) Before sunrise and after sunset, with the exception
of the pursuit of such game as is referred to in Article 15,
letters e, /, g, and h, as also of duck shooting, which are
permitted for half an hour before sunrise, and half an hour
after sunset.

(c) In time of snow, with the exception of the battues
referred to in Article 16, and of waterfowl shooting on the
sea-shore, and on the banks of rivers, marshes, etc., and of
the pursuit of such game as is referred to in Article 15,
letters g and h.

Art. 22. It is forbidden to seek, pick up, sell, expose for
sale, or transport the eggs of game.

Art. 27. Selling, exposing for sale, or transporting game
in close time is prohibited, except for fourteen days after the
closing.

Even in the shooting season it is forbidden to carry or
transport game in fields, or away from public roads and foot-
paths, unless the person himself who is carrying the game,
or some one accompanying him, holds a licence, or unless he

286 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

holds a " permission-gratis " from the burgomaster of the
parish where he resides, to be produced on the first demand
of the properly qualified officer.

Art. 45 condemns to seizure and confiscation the guns and
other implements (but not dogs) employed by any one
shooting or pursuing game in close time or other forbidden
times, or without a licence, or without permission from the
owner, or pursuing game in an unlawful manner. It like-
wise orders the confiscation of the game unlawfully killed,
exposed for sale, or removed. The offender has, however,
with certain exceptions, the option of retaining the objects
confiscated and paying their value. In case no seizure has
been actually effected, the offender has still to pay their
value as estimated by the magistrate with the aid of
evidence.

It will be seen from the above that the game law of this
country resembles in many respects those of the British
Islands, and that where it differs it is generally in the sense
of greater protection to the game and more numerous restric-
tions on the sportsman.

AMERICA.

Before entering upon a consideration of the laws and
regulations throughout the United States which relate to
the protection of game and to trespass, it must be stated
that no general or uniform law governing the whole country
exists on either subject. Legislation on these and on kindred
matters lie beyond the domain of the Federal Congress, and
depends entirely on the legislature of each separate State.
In order, therefore, to arrive at the required information, it
has been necessary both to consult the several statute books
of the thirty-seven States, and also to make inquiries as to
the common law obtaining in different parts of the country.
This having been done, it has been ascertained that whilst
in every State there exist laws regarding trespass, it is only

GAME LAWS ABEOAD. 287

in twenty-nine of them that enactments have been passed
for the preservation of game ; although those few States
which have not legislated upon the latter subject are among
the least important and the least populated in the Union.

It must first be remarked, then, that in their titles the
laws always profess to be, not for the protection of game as
for the profit or enjoyment of the proprietors of land, but for
its preservation as for its popular and general use. Notwith-
standing, however, this evident interest of the different Acts
that the legislation on this subject should be for the protec-
tion rather of public than of individual interests, there is not
the slightest indication that the game on private lands is to
be considered the property of the State, or of any other
person than the landlord.

There is no law in any State of the Union requiring a
game certificate or a licence for carrying a gun.

Everywhere it is forbidden to shoot on Sunday.

GAME LAWS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

§ 4. No person shall kill or expose for sale, or have in
his possession after the same is killed, any wood duck (some-
times called summer duck), dusky duck (commonly called
black duck), mallard, or teal duck, between the 1st of
February and the 15th of August in each year, except
on the waters of Long Island Sound or the Atlantic Ocean.
No person shall at any time kill any wild duck, goose, or
other wild fowl, with or by means of the device or instru-
ment known as the swivel or punt gun, or with or by means
of any gun other than such guns as are habitually raised at
arm's length, and fired from the shoulder, or shall use any
such device or instrument or gun other than such gun as
aforesaid, with intent to kill any such duck, goose, or other
wild fowl. No person shall in any manner kill, or molest
with intent to kill, any wild ducks, geese, or other wild

288 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

fowl, while the same are sitting at night upon their resting-
places.

§ 5. Any person violating the foregoing provisions of
this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall
likewise be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars for each offence;
and it shall be the duty of all sheriffs, constables, and police
officers to see that these provisions are enforced.

§ 6. No person shall at any. time within this State, kill
or trap, or expose for sale, or have in his possession after the
same is killed, any eagle, fish hawk, night hawk, whip-poor-
will, finch, sparrow, yellow bird, wren, martin, swallow,
tonagar, oriole, bobolink, or any other song bird ; or kill,
trap, or expose for sale any robin, brown-thresher, wood-
pecker, blackbird, meadow-lark, or starling, save during the
months of August, September, October, November, and
December ; nor destroy or rob the nests of any wild birds
whatever, under a penalty of five dollars for each bird so
killed, trapped, or exposed for sale, and for each nest
destroyed or robbed. This section shall not apply to any
person who shall kill or trap any bird for the purpose of
studying its habits or history, or having the same stuffed
and set up as a specimen ; nor to any person who shall kill
on his own premises any robin during the period when
summer fruits or grapes are ripening, providing such robin
is killed in the act of destroying such fruits or grapes.

§ 7. No person shall at any time within ten years of the
passage of this Act, kill any pinnated grouse, commonly
called prairie-fowl, unless upon grounds owned by them, and
grouse placed thereon by said owners, under a penalty of ten
dollars for each bird so killed.

§ 8. No person shall kill, or have in his or her possession,
except alive for the purpose of preserving the same alive
through the winter, or expose for sale, any woodcock between
the 1st of January and the 4th of July, or any quail,
sometimes called Virginia partridge, between the 1st of
January and the 20th of October, or any ruffed grouse,

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 289

commonly called partridge, between the 1st of January
and the 1st of September, or have in his possession any
pinnated grouse, commonly called prairie-chicken, or expose
the same for sale between the 1st of February and the
1st of July, under a penalty of ten dollars for each bird
so killed or had in possession, or exposed for sale.

§ 11. There shall be no shooting, hunting, or trapping
on the first day of the week, called Sunday ; and any person
violating the provisions of this section, shall be liable to a
penalty of not more than twenty-five, nor less than ten dollars
for each offence, or imprisonment for not more than twenty,
nor less than five days.

§ 12. In the counties of Kings, Queens, and Suffolk, or
on the waters adjacent to the same, no person shall kill,
or have in his or her possession after the same is killed, any
wild goose, brant, wood duck, dusky duck (commonly called
black duck), mallard, widgeon, teal, sheldrake, broadbill,
coot or old squaw, between the 10th of June and the 20th
of October in each year ; and no person shall kill or shoot
at any wild goose, brant, or duck after sunset and before
daylight on any day of the year ; and no person shall sail
for wild fowl or shoot at any wild goose, brant, or duck from
any vessel propelled by sail or steam, or from any boat
attached to the same ; and no person shall use any floating
battery or machine for the purpose of killing wild fowl, or
shoot out of such floating machine at any wild goose, brant,
or duck. But nothing herein contained shall prohibit the
use of floats or batteries in Long Island Sound. Any person
violating any of the provisions of this section shall be liable
to a penalty of fifty dollars for each offence.

§ 13. Any person trespassing upon lands owned or
occupied by another, for the purpose of shooting, hunting,
or fishing thereon, after public notice by such owner or
occupant as provided in the following section, shall be
deemed guilty of trespass, and shall be liable to such owner
or occupant in exemplary damages for each offence, not

U

290 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

exceeding twenty-five dollars, and shall also be liable to the
owner or -occupant for the value of the game killed or taken.
[We may note here, in passing, some facts which show
very clearly one phase of the misapprehension which exists
among some of our readers about the names of common
American birds and mammals. A writer may dislike to
have names misapplied, yet his language will show he is
ignorant of the zoological relations of the birds about which
he writes. We may tell him that the birds which he, perhaps,
calls partridge, pinnated grouse, and grouse, are all- of them
grouse. The first is the ruffed, the second the pinnated, and
the third the spruce grouse, and any one of them may properly
be called grouse. "Bob White" is commonly called quail in
the North, but throughout the South it is usually, and more
correctly, called "partridge," which name in the New Eng-
land States is invariably applied to the ruffed grouse. The
ruffed grouse is also called pheasant in Pennsylvania, Minne-
sota, and the South, very incorrectly, of course. Strictly
speaking, there are no true quail or partridge indigenous to
America, but "Bob White" and his south-western cousins
belong to the partridge family (Perdicedce), and are so closely
related to the true partridges that it is not a misuse of terms
to give them that name.]

SWITZERLAND.

Throughout the Swiss Confederation game is universally
recognized as the property of the State, but as each canton
possesses sovereign rights within the narrow limits of its
territory, the restrictive measures adopted for the preserva-
tion of game vary in many important respects. Notwith-
standing the evident care with which these measures have
been framed, and their gradually increasing stringency, they
have not, however, been hitherto attended with any marked
success, since the very existence of game, except perhaps in
a few specially favoured localities, is- generally admitted to

GAME LAWS ABE 0 AD. 291

be extremely problematical. How far this almost total
disappearance of game of every kind may be attributed to
the nature of the country itself, to the system of cultivation,
to some inherent defect in the present law, or to laxity in
administration, is a question not easily solved. What-
ever the cause, the untoward effects are but too patent even
to the most superficial observers. So much so that the
greater number of the cantonal governments have within
the last few years been empowered to use their discretion
to the extent of either partially or wholly prohibiting the
killing of game within their territories ; but even measures
of so exceptional a nature do not so far seem to have attained
the object in view.

The system which obtains in all the cantons, with one or
two exceptions, is that of requiring all persons engaged in
killing game to provide themselves with special licences.
These licences, available only for the period of one year, are
made out in the names of the individuals to whom they have
been granted and are not transferable. Any attempt to
evade this regulation exposes both the holder of the licence
and the person improperly using it to a heavy fine. They
are issued by the Home Department only to such applicants
as are either personally known to the department or recom-
mended by the authorities of the district to which they
belong.

Any one engaged in shooting game is bound to produce
his licence at once when called upon to do so by police
agents, forest guards, private keepers, and, in some cantons,
any other licensed sportsman.

There are several kinds of licences, the charge for which
differs in almost every canton. An ordinary licence, avail-
able for the whole of the shooting season, costs from six to
twenty francs, but does not include large game (" hochge-
wild "), for which a special licence has to be obtained,
costing in some cantons no less than forty francs. The fee
charge for a licence merely to shoot snipe in the spring, or

292 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

to be allowed to spread nets to catch birds of passage, varies
in amount from four to ten francs. In some cantons, how-
ever, an extra charge is made when sporting dogs are used.
In others, again, temporary permits are granted to non-
residents for limited periods, at the rate of one franc fifty-
centimes per day. Lastly, the authorities in a few of the
cantons are allowed to grant temporary permissions to
distinguished foreigners, and to minors to go out in the
company of regularly licensed sportsmen.

The only canton where game is said to be found in any
considerable quantities is that of Aargau, which has not
adopted the licence system. Its territory is divided for
sporting purposes into seventy-two districts (" jagdreviere "),
which are let on an eight years' lease by the State, at public
auction, to the highest qualified bidders. The annual amount
of the rent has to be paid in advance at the beginning of
each year. The lessors cannot sublet, and not above six
persons can enter into partnership to bid for the lease of
a district. Their names have to be registered, and any
subsequent changes among the co-lessors, should there be
several, have to be at once notified to the proper authorities,
and their consent thereto duly obtained. Leases cannot be
held by individuals who are neither citizens of the canton
nor have obtained the right of domicile.

The ordinary shooting season begins on the 1st of
September, and generally ends on the 31st of December ;
but in some cantons it is not opened until the 1st of
October. As a rule, shooting is not permitted in cultivated
land until the crops have been completely gathered in, or in
vineyards until the vintage is over. Moreover, the authori-
ties reserve to themselves the right, under special circum-
stances, of delaying the period appointed for the commence-
ment of the shooting season. Snipe, woodcocks, and other
birds of passage may be killed between the beginning of
March and the middle of April, and in some parts of the
country up to the end of the latter month. In no instance

GAME LAWS ABE 0 AD. 293

does the season for this kind of sport extend beyond six
weeks. Water fowl can be shot at all times, except between
the 15th of April and the 1st of September. The season for
killing deer, roe, and chamois extends from the beginning
of September to the middle or end of October; but this
description of game has of late become so exceedingly scarce
that the great majority of the cantons have resolved to put
a complete stop to its further destruction for a period of
several years to come.

The sale of game out of the proper season, unless it can
be proved to have been imported from abroad, is strictly
forbidden, and both the vendor and buyer incur a heavy
fine.

On Sundays and other holidays, shooting is likewise pro-
hibited in every part of Switzerland.

Landed proprietors, farmers, and farm labourers may at
any time destroy within the boundaries of their land, but
without the aid of dogs ; and either in any wood or public
or private grazing-ground, all beasts and birds of prey, and
destructive birds, game, or vermin, except hares. Polecats,
martens, otters, foxes,, wolves, lynxes, wild boars, bears,
eagles, vultures, hawks, ravens, crows, magpies, sparrows,
etc., are considered as vermin.

The destruction of singing birds, or such as are useful
for agricultural purposes, as starlings, finches, titmice, larks,
woodpeckers, etc., as well as their eggs and young, is a
punishable offence.

Certain portions of the cantons where licences are granted
are temporarily set apart as game preserves, and called
" Yagdbaunbezirke." For a certain period, arbitrarily fixed
by the authorities, no one is allowed to shoot in these
districts,

No one is allowed to shoot near a house, within en-
closures, or on fields and vineyards before the crop is
removed.

294 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

PERSIA.

I have ascertained that there are no laws for the preser-
vation of game or for the prevention of trespass. The Shah,
by virtue of his prerogative, can decree the strict preserva-
tion of the game in any portion of his dominions. In the
neighbourhood of the capital itself, and in the immediate
vicinity of the high-road, such a preserve exists, and so great
is the terror entertained of the severe punishment his
Majesty would probably inflict upon persons poaching on
his grounds, that the most timid species of game are to be
found within its limits, although, in the adjoining country,
everything has been destroyed.

The Koran allows the pursuit of all kinds of game, with
the exception of those that are forbidden or unclean.
Acting upon this rule, every Persian who possesses a gun
goes out and shoots where and when he pleases. He is
liable to no penalty on account of trespass, save only where
walled enclosures are concerned ; and so strong is the feeling
against any enclosure made solely for the preservation of
game, that nothing of this nature is known to exist in Persia.

In short, game may be shot everywhere except on the
Shah's preserves ; nor can any one be prevented from
trespassing, save in the ease of a garden defended by high
walls, and watched by specially appointed guardians.
Where the corn is green and liable to be destroyed by the
hoofs of horses, the owner may object ; but if he be weaker
than the trespasser, even in this case he has but the shadow
of a chance of obtaining redress.

TURKEY.

No game laws have ever been framed by the Turkish
Government ; but there -are certain police regulations which
prohibit the killing of ;game .at a certain season of the year,

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 295

These regulations, though tolerably well enforced in the
neighbourhood of the capital, are generally little heeded by
sportsmen in most of the provinces.

Game of every description is- considered public property
throughout the land, and may therefore be pursued and
killed by anybody, provided he be furnished with a " teskere,"
or licence, for carrying a gun, with which he must annually
provide himself at the opening of the shooting season,
beginning on the 1st of August and ending on the 31st of
March.

In virtue of this " teskere " all sportsmen acquire a right,
already tacitly recognized, of shooting on any proprietor's
land, as well as on crown lands. Shooting in the vicinity of
the Sultan's kiosks, palaces, hospitals, barracks, and powder-
magazines, is prohibited by the above-mentioned police
regulations.

No laws of trespass exist, but the law forbids any person
from entering a garden or field which may be surrounded by
a stone wall.

Game is not preserved in Turkey.

DENMARK.

The particular birds and animals whose protection is
a main cause of English game law discussions are seldom
found here. It is said that there are no pheasants in
Denmark, except in the king's preserves of Amack and
Klampenborg ; hares are very scarce, and rabbits are almost
unknown.

Under these circumstances it would be useless to analyze
the Danish game laws in detail.

The Danish " Yildt " has a wider meaning than our word
"game." The law protects not only the nobler animals
and birds which may be called " wild," but even such lower
species as foxes, badgers, otters, martens, polecats, fieldfares,
curie ws> redshanks.

296 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

Creatures ferse naturse are presumed to have no indi-
vidual marks whereby they may be recognized, and they
are held to belong to the land on which for the time being
they are found. It follows that a sportsman cannot claim
an animal or bird that escapes from his gun into another
person's property.

Licences to carry arms, or for sporting, are not re-
quired.

Every one has a primd facie right to deal as he pleases
with shooting, trapping, or otherwise, or the game on his
own land, be his tenure emphyteutical or freehold.

Any one may shoot wildfowl from a boat at sea, but
a person so sporting may not wade along the shore, or shoot
inwards on to the land, unless, of course, he is coasting his
own estate.

There is little game in Denmark to tempt poachers ; and
the incidents of violence which follow poaching would be
uncongenial to the quiet habits of the Danish peasant.

In order to favour the growth and settlement of dunes,
where these are required for the protection of the coast,
a so-called "peace," or jubilee, of several months is accorded
by official order to certain sand-burrowing animals, such as
foxes, martens, and the like, in the dunes named.

Deer and hares may not be killed between the 1st of
March and 12th of September. For partridges, the fence
period is 1st of February to 12th of September ; for black-
game and snipes, 1st of February to 1st of August.

Fines of five to ten dollars are inflicted on persons con-
victed of taking the nests or young of creatures classed as
game.

Unauthorized persons of any kind taking singing birds,
or injuring their nests, may be fined from two to five
dollars.

No one may walk in another person's preserves with
guns and dogs, unless lawful business call him, and his dogs
are tied and his guns uncharged. Offenders against this rule

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 297

are liable to be fined ten dollars, and to have their dogs shot
by the competent proprietor or gamekeeper.

Field labourers taking loose dogs with them to their
work are liable to a fine of ninepence for each offence.
Excluded from this rule are shepherds' dogs and the like.
The fine is not applicable where a dog follows its owner
nnder circumstances such that no poaching intentions can
be fairly assumed.

POETUGAL.

Every one is permitted to shoot, subject to the regulations
imposed in the interests of agriculture.

In order to shoot game a licence is required, which is
purchased from the Civil Government, the use of firearms
being prohibited without such licence.

Every one may shoot on their own property, and on any
cultivated lands (it seems) after the crop is gathered.

The municipality fixes annually the time when permis-
sion is allowed to sport on certain lands.

On open ground, planted with olive and other fruit trees,
it is only during the period from the commencement of the
fruit becoming ripe until gathered that such permission
is withheld.

Game becomes the property of the sportsman on captur-
ing it ; he acquires a right to wounded game also.

If wounded game enters enclosed property the sportsman
may not follow it, except with permission 'of the landowner.
The sportsman can require the landowner, if present, to
deliver up the dead game, or permit him to seek it.

Any damage done by the sportsman he is responsible for,
if done in absence of landowner. If more than one sports-
man, they are conjointly responsible.

Dogs entering enclosed property in pursuit of game,
makes the sportsman responsible for damage done by them.

The owner of property, enclosed in such a manner as to

298 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

prevent easy egress or ingress of game, may shoot them
whenever and in whatsoever manner he pleases.

Proprietors may destroy wild animals destructive to
property.

It is strictly forbidden to destroy the eggs, or young
game.

The municipalities determine the time when sporting
is to cease altogether, and also what fines are to be imposed
on persons who break the regulations.

SPAIN.

Spaniards are forbidden to shoot or hunt on any ground
which is not the private property of the individual, more
especially in the provinces of Alasa, Avila, Burgos, Coruna,
Guipuscoa, Huesca, Leon, Logrono, Lugo, Navarre, Orieuse,
Oveido, Palencia, Pontevedra, Salamanca, Santander, Segovia,
Soria, Valladolid, Yiscaya, and Lamora, where all sport is
forbidden from the 1st of April to the 1st of September ; in
the remaining provinces of Spain, including the Balearic
and Canary Islands, all shooting is prohibited from the
1st of May to the 1st of August.

Another article of the Royal Decree prohibits shooting
when the snow is lying upon the ground ; and another one
prohibits the use of traps, snares, nets, decoy birds, except
for quails and birds of passage.

According to the 591st Article of the Penal Code, "people
using firearms without a licence are punishable by a fine
varying from five to twenty-five pesetas " (4s. to 20s.) , and in
the Article 608 of the same code it is stated that "persons
trespassing on enclosed lands, or any private property, for
the purpose of fishing or shooting, without permission from
the proprietor, are amenable to the above-mentioned fine.

Two further articles of the same code state that the
infringement of any laws for the protection of fish and game

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 299

are punishable " by the same fine and the confiscation of the
firearms or fishing implements of the delinquents."

These laws and ordinances are purely theoretical, and the
practice of them is no longer observed in Spain. Shooting
goes o"n at all times and seasons ; snares, traps, and decoys
are used all over the country ; and the result is the most
alarming decrease in every species of game throughout the
country.

With respect to what game is property of the State and
what of individuals, the law is as follows : —

All game in enclosed property, or property whose limits
are defined and marked by large stones, stakes, or anything
that is distinguishable, belongs to the proprietor of the soil,
who can shoot it himself, let it, or give permission to his
friends to shoot it.

The proper authorities, i.e. the governor of each province,
can give permission to shoot on the lands belonging to the
State or to the villages (communal lands), or on any private
lands which are open: that is to say, which are not sur-
rounded by walls or fences, and whose limits are not defined
by landmarks, such as stones, posts, etc.

Any game alighting in private property, or falling
wounded therein, belongs to the owner of the land, and not
the parties who may have shot or hunted it.

Wolves, foxes, martens, wild cats, etc., are free game for
all persons, and in all seasons.

GRAND DUCHY OF BADEN.

The rights of killing and preserving game, which formerly
belonged exclusively to the State and the feudal lords
(" Standesherren " and " Grundherren "), were abolished as
such in 1848, and transferred under certain conditions and
regulations to the commune.

The communes hold a trust, not a right. They represent
the landowners, and are compelled by the game law to let

300 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

the shootings tinder their control by public auction for a
period of at least three years.

Every landowner holding a compact estate of at
least two hundred acres, is allowed the free independent
exercise of his rights in regard to preserving and killing
game.

Regulations for protecting Game.

Besides the special laws against poaching, the game law
provides : —

1. That no game shall be killed or offered for sale
between the 2nd of February and the 23rd of August, with
the exception of wild boar, stags, roebucks, capercailzie,
blackcocks, rabbits, and birds of passage.

2. An offence against the above is punishable by a fine
of from five to twenty florins. Selling game out of season,
stealing or wilfully destroying eggs or young birds, is punish-
able by a fine not exceeding ten florins.

From what has been already said, it will be seen that not
only are the rights of landowners and sportsmen respected,
as far as possible consistently with the public interests, but
that the farmers are also protected against undue injury
to their crops from over preserving. Wherever the head
of game is proved to be excessive, the authorities may inter-
fere and insist on its being reduced. There is consequently
no ground in this country for regarding poaching as a venial
offence, as if it were the natural result of arbitrary or
oppressive laws. The actual degree of criminality to be
attached to offences under the game laws is, nevertheless,
viewed as a question not so easily determined, and as
depending on various considerations.

Pursuing game with a gun on the land of others, without
the knowledge or consent of the owner or his representatives
(" Wilderei "), is punishable, according to circumstances, by
imprisonment varying from fourteen days to four months.

The time when the offence was committed, whether day

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 301

or night, the character of the poacher, and the probable
risk to which the property of the owner and the lives of the
keepers or watchers would have been exposed, are all taken
into account.

Snaring, or otherwise taking game without arms, is
punishable by a fine of twenty-five to one hundred florins,
to be paid to the owner. Repetition of the offence is
punishable by eight days' to three months' imprisonment.

Property in Game.

It is held in this country that no one can be admitted
to possess the same perfect and equitable right of pro-
perty in wild animals in a state of freedom, which he
possesses in ^domesticated animals, or in game enclosed
in parks or preserves, and thereby prevented from 'escap-
ing. Consequently, game in a state of freedom is said
to have no owner, and to belong to the State. The State,
however, as before explained, concedes to the landowners,
under certain conditions and limitations, the right of pre-
serving and killing game on their estates, and declares by
the game law that all game killed or found dead on their
land is to be regarded as their property.

Game, on the other hand, which is enclosed, is exclusively
the property of the landowner, or of any one duly qualified
and authorized by him to occupy his place, whether that
be the State or a private individual.

I have only to observe, in conclusion, that the game
laws in Baden appear to work well, and to give general
satisfaction. There is a large amount of game, especially
roe, deer, and hares, in a state of freedom all over the valley
of the Rhine in the Grand Duchy, a considerable part of
which has hitherto gone to supply the Paris market.

Although this country is generally very fertile, and
highly cultivated, few complaints about the game are heard,
as far as I am aware, with the view to prove that the

302 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND.

interests of agriculture are in danger. I can only attribute
this to the general feeling of security arising from the fact
that the authorities are at liberty to interfere, and do inter-
fere, whenever in any district the game is found to have
increased to an excessive degree.

WURTEMBERG.

The law here distinctly shows that game is considered as
the property of the individual and not of the State. But
Wurtemberg being much broken up into small freehold
properties, it would be impossible in practice to allow every
one to shoot over his own plot ; so, unless a man owns at
least fifty acres, or that his bit of ground, if smaller, is
properly fenced off, the parish, which is usually also a cor-
poration, is owner of some of the woodland, lets the shooting
of the smaller proprietors, for their benefit, with that belong-
ing to the parish en bloc.

The shooting in Wurtemberg is not considered so good
as in the neighbouring countries of Bavaria and Baden ; the
chief cause of this being attributed to the fact that the
parishes, though they might let for a longer term if so
minded, usually let their shootings by auction every three
years ; whereas, I am informed that, in Bavaria, six is the
shortest term for a lease of shooting. The natural con-
sequence of such a short lease as three years is, that the
lessee not being sure of being able to secure the shooting
again, shoots very hard the last season, and there is no time
to get up a head of game between the different lettings.

Another clause considered by game preservers here as
requiring alteration, is that which allows a man with fifty
acres to retain the shooting thereof, as it can happen that
a man may have a bit of bushy ground, a favourite resort of
game in hard weather, and thus almost spoil a parish
shooting district ; and it is considered that it would be better

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 303

if a minimum of from three hundred to four hundred acres
were fixed, instead of fifty.

It may here be observed, that the land in most parts of
Wurtemberg, is split up into small freeholds, the property
of yeomen, who till these plots themselves, and who cannot
be reimbursed, as most British farmers are where game is
preserved, by holding their farms at a lower rent than they
would have to pay were the game killed down and a re-
valuation of the farm made ; and the small amount of shoot-
ing-rent which the Wurtemberg yeoman might get on the
division would not compensate him for any great .damage.
I am told, however, that no great damage is done by the
game in Wurtemberg, though it sometimes happens that the
roe are obliged to be shot pretty hard in some places where
there are young plantations, as they eat off the tops of the
young silver fir trees. The wild boars, which did most
damage, have not existed outside game parks since 1848,
when all game was destroyed to a great extent ; nor have
fallow deer, though I am told there is an attempt to get the
latter up again in one .district, and there are not many red
deer, so that the number of the large game roaming about,
and likely to do damage, is not excessive. As to the smaller
game, there are occasionally complaints that hares bark the
young fruit trees, of which there are great numbers in
Wurtemberg; but this damage can be avoided if the trees
are properly bound up, or smeared with a preparation ; there
are no wild rabbits, the soil not suiting them, and pheasants
only in the royal pheasantry ; so that the actual amount of
damage done must be very small. Altogether, I am told that
the game has greatly decreased since 1848, and that one
hundred to one hundred and eighty hares are perhaps killed
now, where four hundred to eight hundred were killed before
that year.

As regards the fence months during the breeding seasons
of the different kinds of game existing in Wurtemberg,
a translation is annexed of the Royal Ordinance referred to

304 • BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND

in Article 12 of the Game Laws, as mentioned in that same
Article 12. There exists another Ordinance protecting in-
sectivorous birds useful to the garden, farm, and forest, and
also singing birds, and prohibiting the taking of their eggs
or young. In fact, small birds generally may be said to be
protected, the Germans not only being generally by nature
fond of and kind to them, but protecting them for the good
they do in destroying the insects ; starlings especially are
protected, in many parts little boxes being put in trees in
the cottage gardens for them to build in. For catching or
shooting small birds a written permission from the " Oberamt"
is necessary. Sparrows, if they become too numerous, are
destroyed by a person specially authorized by the village to
do so ; so that the usual excuse of young men found creeping
about lanes with a gun, " that they are only killing spar-
rows," cannot be given here. At the same time it may be
remarked that small birds do not appear to be so numerous
here as in most parts of England, probably from there not
being any hedges, and also from the harder and longer frosts
in winter killing off the weaker ones.

An actual law of trespass may be said not to exist in
Wurtemberg ; but when meadows are laid up for hay, and
crops are standing in the fields, any one walking or riding
across would be fined for the damage done. In the woods be-
longing to Government, people are also forbidden to quit the
public paths, and persons gathering wild . berries, etc., are
obliged to be furnished with a permit. The parish woods
could, I suppose, be closed in the same manner, but prac-
tically they are not.

Art. 10. The shooting licences are issued by the prefec-
ture (" Oberamt "), and as a rule for natives of the country
by the prefecture of the district in which the person desiring
such licence resides, and for foreigners, from the prefecture
of the district in which they intend to shoot. An appeal
against the refusal to issue the same, can only be made to
the court of the province (" Kreisbehorde ") to which the
" Oberamt " belongs.

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 305

Wild boars found outside game parks shall be destroyed
as vermin.

Art. 13. Shooting is prohibited on holy days during the
time of the morning service, and is forbidden entirely on
Sundays and the great feast days.

Art. 16. Following the game is not allowed. The game
which is wounded in another shooting district belongs to
that person within the bounds of whose shooting it falls dead
or is found.

§ 1. The fence months, during which game may neither
be killed, trapped, exposed for sale, or bought, are fixed as
follows, according to each different species of game : —

A. Quadrupeds.

1. Stags and bucks, 1st of October to 30th of June.
Red and fallow deer.

2. Hinds (does), 1st of January to 30th of September.
Red and fallow deer.

3. Roebucks, 1st of February to 31st of May.

4. Roe (does), 1st of January to 31st of October.

5. Hares, 1st of February to 31st of August.

6. Foxes, 1st of March to 30th of September.

7. Badgers, 1st of February to 31st of August..

B. Feathered Game.

1. Cock-of-the-wood (capercailzie) (" Auerhahn"), and
blackcock, 16th of April to 31st of August.

2. Hazel-hens (" Haselhiihner ") (a sort of wood grouse),
partridges, pheasants, from 1st of December to 31st of July.

3. Wild ducks, 1st of February to 31st of July.

4. Quails, wood pigeons, fieldfares, and thrushes, from
1st of March to 31st of August.

§ 2. Game, whether quadrupeds or feathered game, which
is not included in § 1, can at any time of the year be killed,

x

306 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

trapped, sold, and bought. Further, as to the prohibition to
take away the eggs or young of feathered game, reference is
to be made to Article 17, No. 9, of the law of the 27th
October.

As concerns the protection of birds useful to the fields
and forests, and singing birds, further directions will be
given in a separate Ordinance.

§ 3. Whoever kills, traps, exposes for sale, or buys game
during the fence months (§1) shall, in proportion to the
magnitude of the offence, be punished by the " Oberamt," or
the court of the province, with a fine not exceeding twenty-
five florins (£2 2s.), according to Article 17, § 7, of the
game law.

AUSTRO-HUNGARIA.

I wish only to observe that the views which guided the
conception of Austrian laws had for object, on one hand,
that the right of shooting should exclusively pertain to the
owners of great estates, to persons enjoying the "droits
seigneuriaux ; " and, on the other hand, that the common
peasants might be excluded from a sport, the indulgence in
which might alienate them from their serious occupations.
Thus in the course of years the principle made its way, but
the right of shooting can only be a feudal right connected
with the ownership of great landed properties.

1. The right of pursuing game on another man's property
is abolished.

3. Villainage and other compulsory service for sporting
purposes are abolished without indemnity.

5. Every proprietor of a rounded estate of at least two
hundred jochs (one joch = about an acre) is entitled to
pursue the game on his property.

6. On all other properties not excepted in §§ 4 and 5,
situated within the limits of a commune, the game belongs,
after the promulgation of this law, to the respective com-
mune.

GA ME LAWS ABROAD. 307

7. The commune is bound either to let the game without
subdivision, or to exercise its right of pursuing it by means
of trained gamekeepers.

8. The annual rent of the game thus ceded to the com-
mune is, at the close of each year's agreement, to be divided
amongst the proprietors, according to the extent of their
property in the commune.

BAVAEIA.

As regards the question of property in game (or more
properly, in wild animals generally), the law of Bavaria
recognizes no property in it, so long as it remains in its
wild and natural state. Whilst in that condition it is neither
the property of the State nor of individuals, but, as under
the old Roman law, is held to be a res nullius ; and it only
becomes property after it has been reduced into possession,
or acquired by legal means.

Down to the year 1848, the question of the right to kill
game remained in Bavaria, as in most of the other German
States, in very much the same condition as that which it
had assumed three centuries previously.

The leading provisions of the law (of March 30, 1850) are
to the following effect : —

It lays down the general principle that from and after
the passing of this law the right to pursue or kill game shall
be founded exclusively on the right of proprietorship in the
land ; that all previously existing seigniorial rights of the
chase on land, the property of other persons, shall cease
at once and for ever, and that no such rights shall ever
again be created.

The general principle enunciated by the law as above
stated, that the ownership of the land should, in future,
constitute the foundation of the right to pursue or kill the
game found upon it, is, however, at the same time, prac-
tically restricted, to a very notable extent, by the following

308 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

proviso of the law : namely, that the exercise of this right
shall be limited absolutely to the proprietors — whether nobles
or peasants — of not less than two hundred and forty Bava-
rian acres * of land if situate in the plain, or of four hundred
Bavarian acres if in the mountains ; and further, to the
proprietors of this extent of land only in those cases in.
which the entire two hundred and forty or four hundred
acres respectively lie altogether so as to constitute one com-
pact plot or parcel of land not intersected or divided by
other lands. From this limitation, as to the rights of the
chase, the law, however, exempts smaller portions of land if
completely inclosed by a wall or other description of thick
fence, as well as gardens and other plots of ground imme-
diately attached to country houses or farm buildings, pro-
vided they be railed in ; and further, no piece of land is held
to be otherwise than compact or undivided in the sense
of this law, if merely intersected by a road or stream.

As I have already stated, the number of proprietors of
large landed estates, it may even be said of estates of more
than a few hundred acres lying compactly together, is very
limited in Bavaria, whilst by far the larger proportion of
the land is in the hands of so-called peasant proprietors,
owning on an average perhaps from fifty to a hundred acres.

Consequently, the practical result of the enactment above
described is that, as a general rule, the rights of the chase
in this country are enjoyed by persons who hire them from
the communal authorities, the exception to the rule being
the case of a proprietor exercising those rights on his own
land.

The size of the communes varies very considerably in
different districts of Bavaria ; but I am informed that it may
be assumed on an average, at about two thousand or three
thousand Bavarian acres. The price usually obtained for
the lease of the shooting depends, I need hardly state, very
greatly on the locality of the commune, and on the quantity
* One hundred acres on " Tagwerke," are equal to 84^ English acres.

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 309

of game supposed to exist in it ; but the rates are, as a rale,
very low, especially if compared to what would be paid
under similar circumstances in England. In the outlying
rural districts, distant from any market towns, or where
there may be but few resident proprietors inclined to hire
the communal shootings, or where there is but little game,
about fifty or one hundred florins * may be taken as the
average annual rent of the shooting of a commune ; whilst
in the neighbourhood of large towns, or in localities where
game is more than usually abundant, as much as six hundred
florins is frequently paid.

It may be as well here to remark that a system of fences,
or other mode of enclosing the land, is scarcely known in
Bavaria; the boundary of each separate field or plot of
ground being, as a general rule, marked by corner stones
only, or by narrow paths.

In cases where a plot of land, consisting of less than the
required two hundred and forty or four hundred acres, is
completely surrounded by an extent of land belonging to
one'and the same person, sufficient to carry with it the rights
of the chase, then the owner of the latter has the power of
claiming the right to kill the game on the smaller piece of
land so surrounded by his own, provided he pays to its
owner an indemnity fixed according to the rates current for
the hire of shootings in the district in which such land may
be situated.

The chief descriptions of game found in Bavaria are (in the
plains and cultivated lands generally), hares, and the common
grey partridge ; and in the woods and copses, with which
this country is thickly studded, roe deer in considerable
numbers, the latter being a kind of game which is much
prized by German sportsmen. Indeed, from the German
point of view, the roe deer constitute the leading and most
attractive feature in the various elements of the chase in
this country. Pheasants are rare, being only found in the
* Twelve Bavarian florins are equal to £1 sterling.

310 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

royal enclosed preserves, or " pleasantries, " and in small
numbers on some few private estates. In the large forests
and mountainous districts, red deer are tolerably numerous ;
and there are, besides, capercailzies, or cock-of-the-wdod,
blackgame, ptarmigan, hazel-hens (a small description of
wood grouse, unknown in the British Isles), and red-legged
partridges ; and the higher ridges on the Bavarian borders
towards the Vorarlberg, the Tyrol, and Salzburg, afford
some of the best chamois hunting in Europe. These last-
named grounds belong chiefly to the crown, and are care-
fully preserved against intruders.

The following are some of the minor provisions of the
law of the 30th of March, 1850, respecting the chase : —

No person is allowed to shoot, or otherwise go in pursuit
of game, without being provided with a licence or card of
permission. These cards are issued by the police authorities
of the several districts to all persons applying for them, who
are not under legal disability, and they are valid for one
calendar year, and for the whole kingdom. Each card is
available for one person only, and it must be made out in
his name, and with his "signalement." The charge for
each is eight florins. A fine, not exceeding twenty-five
florins, to be recovered by the police authorities, or a pro-
portionate term of imprisonment, is imposed upon all persons
found in pursuit of game without being provided with one
of the above-mentioned cards ; or who make use of a card
issued in the name of another person, or who take with them
as a companion or guest in the chase a person carrying a
gun and not provided with the necessary card ; or who are
found in pursuit of game on land (the right of shooting on
which does not belong to them), without being accompanied
by the person to whom that right belongs, or by an authorized
guard or keeper ; or who, whilst in pursuit of game, infringe
the police regulations with reference to the protection of
field crops, forests, etc. ; and, lastly, who refuse to exhibit
their card when called upon to do so by a duly authorized

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 311

public officer. And, as regards persons found in pursuit of
game without the necessary card, they incur, in addition to
the above-mentioned fine of twenty-five florins, a further
fine, equal in amount to the fee payable for the card itself.

Disturbing or taking the nests of capercailzies, black-
game, hazel-hens, partridges, wild ducks or pheasants, or of
any of the various kinds of the wild birds which breed in
the fens or morasses.

All persons abetting or rendering assistance to others in
the commission of infractions of this law are punishable by
a fine, or term of imprisonment in proportion to the gravity
of the offence.

The Royal Ordinance of October 5th, 1863, containing
police regulations with reference to the chase, sets out by a
declaration to the effect that the right of shooting or killing
game shall in all cases be exercised with moderation, and
with a due regard to the general interests of the chase, but
at the same time forbids the maintenance of game in such
quantities as to cause injury to the field crops or to the woods,

It then specifies the periods within which the killing of
the different kinds of game and other wild animals is pro-
hibited.

These periods are as follows : —

For stags (red deer), between the 15th of October and
the 24th of June.

Hinds or yearlings, between the 6th of January and the
15th of September.

Fallow deer (bucks), between the 30th of October and the
24th of June.

Does, between the 6th of January and the 1st of October.

Chamois, between the 30th of November and the 25th of
July.

Roebuck, between the 2nd of February and the 1st of
June.

Wood hares, between the 2nd of February and the 15th
of September.

312 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

Badgers, between the 1st of January and the 15th of
September.

Beavers, between the 2nd of February and the 1st of
October.

Marmots, between the 31st of October and the 15th of
August.

Pheasants, between the 1st of March and the 1st of
September.

Cock-of-the-wood and blackcock, between the 2nd of
February and the 1st of August (except for a couple of
weeks in April during the pairing season, when these birds
may be shot).

Ptarmigan, hazel-hens, and red-legged partridges, between
the 2nd of February and the 1st of August.

Wild ducks, between the 1st of March and the 30th of
June.

Woodcocks and snipes, between the 15th of April (the 1st
of May in the mountains) and the 1st of July.

Other birds which breed in the fens, and wild pigeons,
fieldfares, etc., between the 1st of April and the 1st of June.

The further regulations laid down by this Ordinance are
to the following effect. It is at all seasons of the year for-
bidden to shoot or take the does of roedeer, the young (less
than a year old) of red deer, chamois, or roedeer, as also the
hens of capercailzie and blackgame ; but as regards the does
of roedeer, if these should become so numerous in any
locality as to appear to the person owning the right of
shooting in such locality, to require thinning, special per-
mission may be granted to him by the local police authorities,
after consultation with the inspector of forests and chases
of the district, to kill a certain number of them.

The opening of the shooting season for hares, partridges,
and quails in the plain or open country, is fixed every year
in each province of the kingdom, separately, by the chief
provincial authority, on any day between the 15th of August
and the 15th of September, according to the state of the

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 313

harvest, and the day fixed upon must be announced in the
official journal of the province. But any person having
the right of shooting over an extent of land of not less than
three thousand Bavarian acres lying altogether, may, on
application to the police authorities of the district, obtain
permission to shoot leverets for his own use at an earlier
date than that which may be fixed upon by the authorities
for the opening of the regular season for hare shooting.

The regulations above described, respecting the periods
within which it is forbidden to kill the several kinds of
game or other wild animals, only apply to the open country
generally, and are not obligatory as regards the game kept
in preserves qompletely enclosed by a paling or wall, or in
pheasantries. They may, therefore, be considered a dead
letter so far as fallow deer are concerned, none of these
animals being found in Bavaria in a wild state in the forests
(as in the neighbouring province of Bohemia), or otherwise
than in enclosed preserves or parks, and even in the latter
condition they are far from numerous.

The announcement of the opening of the shooting season
confers no right to disregard the general prohibition with
respect to walking over field crops still standing, or through
vineyards in which the grapes have not been gathered ; but
this prohibition does not apply to pastures, clover, cabbages,
potatoes, turnips, and mangel-wurzel.

It is expressly forbidden to shoot or otherwise take
partridges so long as deep snow lies upon the ground.

Birds and beasts of prey may be shot or caught at all
seasons of the year.

It is forbidden to make use of gun-cotton in shooting
game, or to lay poisoned bait, or traps or nooses for the
purpose of snaring game, except as regards birds of passage.

Red and fallow deer and chamois may not be shot other-
wise than with the bullet.

The placing of spring-guns or man-traps is regulated by
the provisions of Article 149 of the Criminal Police Code,

314 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

which require that before such instruments be laid down
the permission of the local authorities be obtained ; that they
only be laid down in grounds, woods, etc., which are com-
pletely enclosed by a paling or wall, and that a notice of
their existence be affixed outside the enclosure.

It will, therefore, be readily understood, that the ques-
tion is not one which can in this country cause much ill-
feeling, or frequently give rise to litigation.

FLORENCE.

Article 711 of the Italian Civil Code declares that
property in game or fish ("gli animali che formano oggetto
di caccia o di pesca") is acquired by occupancy.

Article 462 lays down the rule that pigeons, conies, and
fish, passing from one pigeon-house, warren, or fish-pond
into another, become the property of the owner of the latter,
when they have not been artfully or fraudulently enticed.

By the communal and provincial law of 1865, every
provincial council is empowered to determine the period
during which the taking of game is to be permitted in each
year.

PIEDMONT.

Piedmontese Game Law of 1836, with modifications intro-
duced by a law of 1853, extended to Lombardy by Decree
July 29, 1859 ; to the Marches by Decree, November 21,
1860; and to Umbria, December 11, 1860.

It is not lawful to enter on another's land for the purpose
of taking game, or to cause game to be hunted with dogs
thereon, against the prohibition of the owner. Such pro-
hibition shall always be presumed in the case of land sown
or under crop, or enclosed with walls, hedges, or any other
kind of fence, unless the owner's written permission to take
game can be produced.

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 315

No one may shoot, or otherwise take game without a
licence, which is personal and good for one year. The charge
for a licence to shoot is ten francs, and thirty francs for a
licence to take game with nets or snares, etc.

Offenders are liable to fines of eighty or one hundred and
sixty francs, according to the degree and nature of the
offence, when guns or dogs are used, and to fines of one
hundred or two hundred francs when nets, etc., are employed.
They may also be sent to gaol, for not less than eight days
or more than one month in the former case; and, in the
latter, for not more than two months or less than fifteen
days.

A person trespassing on another's land, in pursuit of
game, is further liable for any damage caused by him, and
he must give up to the owner of the land all the game killed
or taken thereon.

Any gun, net, dog, or other thing used in the taking of
game, which the offender may have in his possession when
found committing the offence, shall be immediately seized
as security for the payment of fines or compensation.

The chase, at any time, of wolves, bears, and other
animals, for the killing of which a reward is given, is like-
wise excepted. Such animals, however, must be hunted by
soldiers belonging to Bersaglieri companies or to other arms,
or by persons acting under the direction of the syndic of
the commune.

TUSCANY.

Decree of July 3, 1856. — The chase of animals and
fowling are permitted to all persons.

No one may shoot who is not provided with a licence to
carry arms.

Hunting and fowling on another's land, when it is not
waste, without the owner's leave, are forbidden.

On waste land likewise they are forbidden, without such

316 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

consent, where the land is enclosed with walls, hedges, fences,
or palings, and entirely surrounded by cultivated land, and
if any permanent instrument or engines for fowling are
employed.

The killing or taking of pigeons at any time and at any
place is forbidden, under pain of a fine of thirty lire (£1)
for every pigeon killed or taken. The aggregate amount
of such fines, however, cannot exceed three hundred lire
(£10). The birds are forfeited, as well as the arms or other
instruments with which they are killed or taken.

It is forbidden to injure birds' nests and to take their
eggs or nestlings, and likewise to injure the holes or lairs
of wild four-footed animals, or to kill or take their young,
any one of these offences being punishable with a fine of
twenty lire (13s. 4cZ.) ; the aggregate amount of fine,
however, not to exceed the sum of one hundred and fifty
lire (£6).

From the above prohibition are at all times excepted
young unfledged swallows, and the nests, eggs, nestlings of
eagles, falcons, owls, ravens, jackdaws, magpies, sparrows,
as well as the holes or dens and the young of wolves, foxes,
polecats, martens, porcupines, hedgehogs, badgers, and
weasels.

Any person who employs for the purpose of catching
birds or other animals substances causing intoxication or
stupefaction, and whosoever sets snares made of more than
two horse hairs or of wire, and with which animals stronger
than thrushes or blackbirds can be caught, shall pay a fine
of from twenty to one hundred lire (13s. 4<d. to £3 6s. 8d.).

All manner of hunting or fowling is prohibited when the
ground is covered with snow, under pain of fine from twenty
to one hundred lire, together with forfeiture of arms or
instruments employed.

The pursuit of game, etc., with a gun, from one hour after
sunset until one hour before sunrise, is prohibited under pain
of fine from thirty to one hundred lire (£1 to £3 6s. Sd.).

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 317

This prohibition, however, is not applicable to shooting in
marshes. Any one carrying a loaded gun between the hours
aforesaid, in going to or returning from his shooting-ground,
incurs the same penalty.

The penalty for hunting or fowling in any manner at a
time when they are not permitted is a fine not exceeding
one hundred and fifty lire, or less than fifty lire, together
with the forfeiture of guns or other instruments. To the
same fine is liable whosoever during the time above men-
tioned lays snares for any kind of animals, or does not
remove such snares, etc., previously laid by him, or carries
a gun on a public road or in the open country,"or carries
any implements or engines used in fowling, or transports,
deals in, or keeps in his possession game of any kind.

It is lawful, however, to hunt or take at such time
noxious beasts and birds, such as wolves, foxes, badgers,
polecats, martens, weasels, porcupines, hedgehogs, falcons,
owls, ravens, jackdaws, magpies, and crows ; provided that,
in so doing, neither guns, nor snares, nor traps are used ;
and sparrows may be caught by any means, but they may
not be shot with guns.

Prefects may, during the season of general prohibition,
give permission for a determined number of days to com-
panies comprising 'not fewer than eight persons, to shoot
wolves and foxes with guns. In certain particular cases
they may grant such permission to less than eight indi-
viduals together, and they may at any time permit the use
of snares and traps even in fields, woods, and other open
places where it is necessary to employ such means of pro-
tection against the animals above mentioned, provided that
such traps, etc., be set an hour after sunset, and removed an
hour before sunrise, and that they be not set in roads, paths,
or tracks where men or animals pass. Such permission may
be made applicable to wild boars when their increase becomes
injurious to agriculture.

From the close of the shooting season until the 16th of

318 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

March, wood pigeons may be shot by special permission in
places where it is customary to do so.

Special permission may also be obtained to shoot water-
fowl until the 14th of April,' on lakes, marshes, and ponds,
on the Arno, the Serchio, the Chiara Canal from the Lake
of Chiusi to the Arno, the Tiber from Piene S. Stefano to
the Pontifical frontier, the Ombrone from the confluence of
the Arbia to the sea, and on the Cecina from the confluence
of the Possera to the sea.

During the period above specified, woodcock shooting
is permitted only on lakes, marshes, and ponds.

During the same period, ending 14th of April, it is lawful
for any person to catch lapwings, plovers, starlings, and
" gambette ; " but the use of lime-twigs, traps, or nets with
close meshes, is forbidden, under pain of fine, from forty
to one hundred lire.

TUSCANY.

From and after the 8th of August, quails, turtle doves,
fig-eaters ("beccafichi "), ortolans, nightingales, gulls (?),
and other small birds which leave Tuscany in the course of
the summer, may be caught with open nets, lime twigs, and
in other ways specified in the law.

Quails may be shot by special permission from the 16th
to the 31st of August.

NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES.

The regulations in force are mainly founded on a decree
of Ferdinand I., dated 18th of August, 1819. They are to
the following effect : —

No one may shoot, or go in pursuit of game at any
season, or in any place, without a licence, under pain of
forfeiture of gun, etc., and a fine of fifty ducats (about
£8 10s.), besides the punishment awarded by the penal

GAME LAWS ABEOAD. 319

laws for carrying arms without permission. Formerly two
licences were required : a licence to carry arms, and a licence
to shoot game. One licence is now sufficient, called, "Per-
niesso di Armi e di Caccia : " this licence is obtained from
the head of the police department, in the chief town of each
province, who delivers it at his discretion to persons of
whose respectability he is assured. The charge for it, which
varies in different provinces, is at Naples equivalent to
about lls. 2d.

Any person provided with such a licence> may shoot in
the open country ; but it is forbidden to go in pursuit of
game into royal preserves, or upon any grounds enclosed
with walls, hedges, ditches, or banks of earth of the height
of four feet four inches, without the. owner's leave, under
pain of forfeiture of gun, accoutrements, etc., together with
a fine not exceeding ten ducats (about £1 145.). The same
prohibition extends to unenclosed vineyards from the 1st of
September to the close of the vintage.

A similar penalty is incurred by any person shooting, or
going in pursuit of game, from the 1st of April to the 30th
of August.

Quails, and other birds of passage, however, may be
taken or shot on the sea-shore, in the months of April and
May, and on uncultivated ground elsewhere, in June and
July.

The employment of snares, or nooses to catch hares,
partridges, woodcocks, or pheasants, is prohibited at all
times, and in all places, under penalty of a fine of ten ducats
(about £1 14s.), and imprisonment for a term not exceeding
fifteen days. The same penalty is incurred by any person
shooting another's pigeons in the fields, taking eggs from
the nests of quails, partridges, pheasants, and blackcocks,
or taking the young of hares or deers.

The above-mentioned penalties may be doubled in the
case of offences committed during the night.

320 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

SICILY.

I am informed that any person provided with a licence
is at liberty to shoot game of any description, and at all
seasons wherever he finds it, except within walled enclosures,
which are devoted to the preservation of game for the use
of the proprietor of the land. In every case of trespass,
whether committed in pursuit of game or otherwise, the
proprietor's remedy is to lodge a complaint against the
offender with the local judicial authorities, by whom
the trespasser, if convicted, may be sentenced to make good
any actual damage, and to pay a small fine, besides costs.

VENETIAN PROVINCES.

No one can be authorized to use poison, to hunt or shoot,
etc., hares when the ground is covered with snow, to hunt
stags, fallow deer, or roebucks, to hunt with hounds in the
fields before the end of September, or to go in pursuit of
game, etc., on another person's land which is enclosed, or,
if unenclosed, on which there are any kinds of produce liable
to damage. The penalty for the commission of any of these
offences is a fine of one hundred and eighty francs.

Land is considered as enclosed only when it is completely
surrounded by fences or ditches in such a manner as to show
manifestly the intention of the owner constantly to prevent
the ingress of persons as well as beasts.

A licence is only valid from the 1st of July to the 15th
of the following April. Shooting, fowling, etc., at any other
time are punishable with fines of one hundred and eighty
francs.

ROMAN PROVINCE.
A law of August 14th, 1839,. declares that all persons may

GAME LAWS ABROAD.

321

chase both quadrupeds and birds under the following regula-
tions : —

From the 1st of April to the 1st of August, the chase of
useful quadrupeds or birds, with the exception of quails,
which may be taken on the sea-shore, but not elsewhere, at
the time of their arrival, is prohibited.

During the same time no one is allowed to sell or buy
game of any sort, except quails at the time of their arrival.

The spoiling of eggs or nests, and the killing of the
young of useful animals are prohibited. It is also forbidden
to pursue hares, roebucks, partridges, and other useful birds
or quadrupeds in places covered with snow.

No one may at any time take or kill pigeons, the property
of another.

Without the owner's leave, no one may go in pursuit of
game on another person's land, if it be enclosed with walls,
hedges, or other fences in such a manner as to prevent the
entrance of both men and beasts, or, even if not so enclosed,
when it is under crop or prepared for cultivation. This
provision is applicable to unenclosed property in marshy
districts yielding natural produce of various kinds.

ITALY.

The following are the duties chargeable on game licences
in different parts of the kingdom of Italy : —

Shooting Licence.

Licence to take
Game with nets,
etc.

Province of the former kingdom of
Sardinia, Lombardy, Komagna, and
the Marches

Fr. c.
10 0
10 0

Fr. c.
30 0
18 40

10 30

30 0

9 50

30 0

322

BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

Shooting Licence.

Licence to take
Game with nets,
etc.

Reggie-Emilia . . .

10 0

30 0

Piacenza \

12 0

6 0

Parina /

Tuscany ,

13 40

I

Various : from

Naples ... ...

12 75

2 12

to

(

6 37

(

From

Neapolitan Provinces

8 50

2 12

to

(

4 25

Sicily :
Licence to shoot game

6 37

Various : from
1 6

to

Licence to bear arms.

10 0

12 75

To these duties must be added the war tenth and stamps,
amounting to one franc twenty centimes.

SAXONY.

According to the laws of Saxony, the right of killing
game extends to all those animals and birds (living in their
natural condition of freedom, and therefore constituting
public property) which have hitherto been considered as
game in this country, viz. red deer, fallow deer, roedeer,
wild boar, wild rabbits, hares, beavers, badgers, otters, foxes,
martens, fitchets, weasels, ermines, wild cats, squirrels, and
all wild birds.

He who has the right of killing game is also entitled to
destroy the nests of wild birds in his district, to take out
their eggs and young ones, and to take possession of dying
game and of shed stag horns.

The owners of the grounds on which the "Altberech-
tigten " have the right of killing game are entitled to redeem

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 323

this privilege by paying an indemnity for it, the amount of
which is fixed by law.

The right of killing game belongs, furthermore, to all
proprietors and usufructuaries of estates, which form an
unintersected area of at least three hundred acres of field
or woodland.

Railway roads and rivers are not to be considered as
intersecting a hunting district, with the single exception of
the River Elbe.

The owners of smaller estates have to form conjoint-
hunting districts with their neighbours, which must at least
extend over three hundred acres.

In such hunting districts the right of killing game cannot
be exercised by single proprietors of the grounds of which the
aforesaid districts are composed, but only by foresters duly
appointed, or by persons who have rented the right of killing
game in the districts in question.

Even the persons who possess the right of killing game
are not allowed to make use of this right throughout the
whole year.

A time has, on the contrary, been fixed, during which it
is forbidden to kill game. This time extends —

1. For red deer and fallow deer, from the 1st of April to
the 15th of July inclusively.

2. For wild ducks, from the 1st of April to the 15th of
June inclusively.

3. For all other game, from the 1st of February to the
31st of August.

Persons killing game during this time are fined or
imprisoned. This law does not, however, apply to the
killing of beasts of prey, such as otters, foxes, martens,
fitchets, weasels, wild cats, etc.

Moreover, it is forbidden —

1. To hunt or shoot game in premises and places which
are inhabited.

2. To make use of cruel means for hunting or shooting
game.

324 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND.

3. To kill game on Sundays during the time of divine
service, and in the neighbourhood of churches and cemeteries.

Driving game is entirely forbidden on Sundays.

Lastly, it is to be remarked that the pursuit of wounded
game into another person's hunting district is forbidden.

BELGIUM.

The regulations relative to game and to the law of trespass
in pursuit of game in Belgium are governed by the law of
the 26th of February, 1846. The Moniteur Beige, in the
"Expose des Motifs" for this law (p. 1227), says: "The
Constituent Assembly, in destroying the feudal regime, hasr
by its decree of the 4th-llth of August, 1789, considered the
right of shooting or destroying game as inherent to the land.
The execution of this decree having given rise to grave dis-
orders which it was necessary to repress in the interest of
agriculture, the same Assembly, by the law of the 28th— 30th
of April, 1790, fixed certain limits to the right of pursuing
game."

The material points of this law are —

1. The fixing by the Government of the periods for
opening and closing the right to shoot or otherwise pursue
game.

2. Prohibition of every description of pursuing game,
either with gun, by coursing, by nets or snares, out of these
periods.

3. Prohibition to pursue game over another person's land
without the consent of the proprietor, or of the person holding
a right from him.

4. Prohibition to remove or destroy on another's land
eggs or broods of quails, pheasants, partridges, blackcock,
rails, grouse, plover, and waterfowl.

Absolute prohibition, in or out of the stated periods, of
snares, nets, baited and other traps suitable for taking or
destroying pheasants, partridges, quails, blackcock, gelinottes,

GAME LAWS ABROAD. 325

rails, grouse, plovers, snipe, jacksnipe, hares, rabbits, chev-
reuil, stags, or deer.

Thus, as to the game mentioned above, no sport can take
place but by shooting or coursing, but rabbits can at all
times be taken with nets and ferrets.

6. Absolute prohibition, after the closing of the season,
of using nets, snares, or engines applicable to or capable of
taking or destroying any sort of game not herein specified.

7. Prohibition to expose for sale, buy, or hawk, during
the close season, quails, pheasants, partridges, gelinottes,
blackcock, rails, snipe, jacksnipe, hares, roebucks, stags, and
deer.

Article 2 of the law above referred to reproduces the
ancient legislation and the principles of the law of 1790 as
to the ownership of the right of pursuit of game. Every
kind of right, even in the matter of small birds, is forbidden
on the land of another without the proprietor's consent. The
right to game is a right inherent to the property. The pos-
sessor of the soil has, therefore, the right to dispose of it.
He may transmit this right to a third persoo, that is to say,
he may let or cede the game on his property. In that case
this third party is the representative of the owner. The
farmer to whom the right of game has not been granted
under his lease cannot sport without the permission of the
landlord.

Poaching prevails largely in Belgium, especially in the
vicinity of large manufacturing towns, many of the work-
men in which, preferring a life of crime to the pursuit of an
honest calling, organize themselves in bands more or less
numerous, and systematically endeavour to enrich themselves
at the expense of their neighbours.

THE END.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.

[September, 1886.

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WILKIE COLLINS, continued.

BY CHARLES GIBBON.

Man and Wife.

Haunted Hotel.

Robin Gray.

The Flower of the

Poor Misa Finch.

The Fallen Leaves.

For Lack of Gold.

Forest.

Miss or Mrs. ?

Jezebel'sDaughter

What will the

A Heart's Problem

New Magdalen.

The Black Robe.

World SayP

The Braes of Yar-

The Frozen Deep.

Heart and Science

In Honour Bound.

row.

Law and the Lady.

"1 Say No."

In Love and War.

The Golden Shaft

TheTwo Destinies

For the King.

Of High Degree.

BY MORTIM1
Sweet Anne Page.

SR COLLINS.
From Midnight to

In Pastures Green
Queen of the Mea-
dow.

Fancy Free.
By Mead and
Stream.

Transmigration. | Midnight.

A Fight with Fortune.

MORTIMER &• FRANCES COLLINS.

Sweet and Twenty. | Frances.

Blacksmith and Scholar.

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You Play me False.

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Hearts of Gold.

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A Castle in Spain.

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Our Lady of Tears. | Circe's Lovers.

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Sketches by Boz. I Oliver Twist.
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Roxy.

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Polly.

Seventy-five Brooke Street.
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Filthy Lucre.

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Garth. I Sebastian Strome

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The House of Raby.

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Self-Condemned.

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Fated to be Free.

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LYNX LINTON, continued —
With a Silken Thread.
The Rebel of the Family.

BY MARGARET AGNES PAUL.
Gentle and Simple.

"My Love

lone.

BY JAMES PAYN.

BY HENRY

W. LUCY.

Lost Sir Massing-
berd.

Like Father, Like

Gideon Fleyce.

A Perfect Trea-

A Marine Resi-

BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY, M.P.

sure.

dence.

Dear LadyDisdain

Llnley Rochford.

Benti nek's Tutor.

Married Beneath

The Waterdale

MIssMisanthrope

Murphy's Master.

Him.

Neighbours.

Donna Quixote.

A County Family.

Mirk Abbey.

My Enemy's

The Comet of a

At Her Mercy.

Not Wooed, but

Daughter.

Season.

A Woman's Ven-

Won.

A Fair Saxon.

Maid of Athens.

geance.

Less Black than

BY GEORGE MACDONALD.
Paul Faber, Surgeon.
Thomas Wingfold, Curate.

Cecil's Tryst.
Clyffards of Clyffe
The FamilyScape-
grace.

We're Painted.
By Proxy.
Under One Roof.
High Spirits.

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1C DON ELL.

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Carlyon's Year.

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Found Dead.

A Confidential

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The Evil Eye. | Lost Rose.

Best of Husbands.
Walter's Word.
Halves.

Agent.
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Views.

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MALLOCK.

Fallen Fortunes.

From Exile.

The New Repub

ic.

What He Cost Her

A Grape from a

BY FLORENC
Open! Sesame
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\E MARRY AT.
A Little Stepson.
Fighting the Air
Written in Fire.

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Val Strange.

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World.
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Whiteladies.

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OUIDA.

Held In Bondage.

TwoLittleWooden

Strathmore.

Shoes.

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In a Winter City.

Under Two Flags.

Ariadne.

Idaiia.

Friendship.

Cecil Castle

Moths.

maine's Gage.

Pipistrello.

Tricotrln.

A Village Com-

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Foile Farine.

Bimbi.

A Dog of Flanders.

In Maremma.

Pascarel.

Wanda.

Signa.

Frescoes.

Princess Napraxine.

The Mystery of Marie Roget.

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Mrs. Lancaster's Rival.
Gerald.

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Christie Johnstone.
Griffith Gaunt.
Put Yourself In His Place.
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Love Me Little, Love Me Long.
Foul Play.

The Cloister and the Hearth.
The Course of True Love.
Autobiography of a Thief.
A Terrible Temptation.
The Wandering Heir.
A Simpleton. I A Woman-Hater.
Readiana. | The Jilt.

Singleheart and Doubleface.
Good Stories of Men and other
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Her Mother's Darling.
Prince of Wales's Garden Party.
Weird Stories.
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Fairy Water.
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Women are Strange.
The Hands of Justice.

32 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO & WINDUS.

CHEAP POPULAR NOVELS, continued—

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A Levantine Family.
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Gaslight and Daylight.

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One Against the World.
Guy Waterman.
The Lion In the Path.
Two Dreamers.

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Joan Merryweather.
Margaret and Elizabeth.
The High Mills.

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Rogues and Vagabonds.
The Ring o' Bells.

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A Match in the Dark.

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The Mysteries of Heron Dyke.

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The Afghan Knife.

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New Arabian Nights.
Prince Otto.

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Cressida. | Proud Malsle.

The Violin-Player.

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A Fight for Life.

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Tales for the Marines.
BY T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.
Diamond Cut Diamond.

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The Way We Live Now.
The American Senator.
Frau Frohmann.
Marion Fay.
Kept in the Dark.
Mr. Scarborough's Family.
The Land-Leaguers.
The Golden Lion of Granpere.
John Caldigate.

By FRA NOES ELEA NOR TROLLOPE
Like Ships upon the Sea.
Anne Furness.
Mabel's Progress.

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The Stolen White Elephant.
Huckleberry Finn.

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Mistress Judith.

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Saint Mungo's City.
Beauty and the Beast.

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Sablna.

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Land at Last.

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Paul Ferroll.
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Lindsay's Luck. By the Author of

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Pretty Polly Pemberton. By the

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Trooping with Crows. By Mrs.

PlRKIS.

The Professor's Wife. By LEONARD

GRAHAM.

A Double Bond. By LINDA VILLARI.
Esther's Glove. By R. E. FRANCILLON.
The Garden that Paid the Rent.

By TOM JERROLD.

Curly. By JOHN COLEMAN. Illus-
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Beyond the Gates. By E. S. PHET.PS.
An Old Maid's Paradise. By E. S.

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Burglars in Paradise. ByE.S.PiiELrs.
Doom : An Atlantic Episode. By

JUSTIN H. MACCARTHY, M.P.
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