24 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



wlio go about much and chat with keepers concerning 

 their work will have noticed how perfectly astounding is 

 the ignorance sometimes displayed by men who have 

 been all their lives with nature around them, and yet do 

 not know the names of the commonest birds and trees 

 which they see every day, and who go on year after year 

 beating this wood, or driving that moor, in a way that 

 almost sets your teeth on edge, causing you to w^onder 

 how a man can be such a consummate idiot as to try 

 and perform things that are utterly adverse to all laws 

 of nature ; and he will go on doing it, teaching his children 

 to do the same, for his father 1:)efore him has taught him so, 

 and that is all-sufficient. But fortunately there are plenty 

 of those, on the other hand, who have brains and think 

 for themselves : it is a common thing to meet with men 

 who pay some attention to, and have a natural love for, 

 the beauties which surround them, and which are daily 

 forcino- themselves under their notice. Such men are a 

 pleasure to meet wherever they are, and are always good 

 keepers as well, for they take trouble and set themselves 

 the task to find out the reason why things are so, and 

 when anything goes wrong, persevere to solve the 

 difficulty. To meet such a one is a treat, he is generally 

 one of nature's gentlemen and commands your respect, 

 whereas the other only teaches you how poor the English 

 language is in powers of expression. 



But to return to the subject of the Caper. With the 

 exception of the one month in the year when the male is 

 engaged in his love-song, both sexes are extremely silent, 

 never uttering any note but the usual " coq coq," which 

 has to do duty as a call to one another as well as to 



