"TRESPASSERS" 115 



coverts an asylum is afforded to many of the 

 smaller species, an asylum rendered all the 

 more secure by the exclusion of rapacious ones. 

 This is a benefaction we gladly recognise, but 

 which, being unintentional scarcely commands our 

 gratitude. Besides, the protection thus incidentally 

 one might say accidentally afforded some small 

 birds, in no way compensates the wholesale 

 destruction of the larger and rarer ones. Further, 

 the plea assumes that these two sets of birds are 

 mutually exclusive ; but Nature managed to balance 

 accounts without detriment to either ere man took 

 upon himself to intervene ; she piloted the tiny Gold- 

 crest through the ages ere Nimrod became "a mighty 

 hunter before the Lord " anglice big-game hunter. 



One is disposed to wonder what sort of fame this 

 same Nimrod would have gotten himself among the 

 nations, with a double-barrel sputtering shot enough 

 to cover the side of a house. To have it in hand is 

 a reflection upon one's marksmanship. It is signifi- 

 cant enough that it should be pre-eminently the 

 weapon of present-day sportsmen. I speak not 

 wholly without warrant. I have done little enough 

 covert-skipping, but on more than one occasion in 

 forests that span a continent I have stood, to maul 

 or be mauled, with a single barrel between me and 

 that which would have made beaters skip. It 

 may be urged that the choice of weapon is a matter 

 of taste. I grant it ; but if a man shoots to shoot, 

 let him stand by his shot, and give his quarry "law" 

 to the extent of his own bad aim. This double-barrel 

 business is but machine-fire. What is this beating 

 of coverts and hallooing of yokels to set up a parcel 



