306 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



if in defiance of any rivals, or to give warning of his corning, 

 is soon killed. The female grouse is attracted in the same 

 manner by an imitation of the call of the male. 



So pugnacious a bird as a black-cock is very easy to call 

 till he comes within shot of the concealed shooter : and in- 

 deed partridges and all other birds are attracted by those ex- 

 perienced in imitating their different notes in a manner and 

 with a facility which is quite surprising to the uninitiated. 



I am told that some poachers can even allure a hare with- 

 in shot during a moonlight night by imitating the cry of one 

 of its own species : this, however, is a fact for which I can- 

 not vouch ; but many poachers, from constant watching and 

 following in silence these animals, acquire such a perfect 

 knowledge of their habits, manner of calling to each other, 

 &c., that I by no means deem it impossible. 



Hares, like deer, travel considerable distances to obtain 

 their favourite food, and are therefore easily killed by the 

 nightly poacher, either by being snared or shot en route. 

 Practice and natural keenness enable some of these fellows to 

 get the animal to the summit of some rising ground, so that 

 the clear sky shall be behind it, and they can thus shoot a 

 hare on nights when there is no moonlight, and when an un- 

 practised pair of eyes would be scarcely able to distinguish a 

 house from a tree. 



Pheasants are killed by snare and gun as easily as barn- 

 door fowls would be : so that the unprincipled dealer in game 

 has not the slightest difficulty in keeping his shop full enough 

 to supply the demands of all customers at all seasons. 



I can imagine no better system for sportsmen to adopt 

 than that of underselling the poacher as much as they possibly 

 can. In Scotland in particular, where the right to shoot 

 game is bought, and very often at a high rate, I can see no 

 reason whatever why the purchaser should not sell again 

 what he has paid for. In recommending this to the renter 

 of shooting-grounds, I only advocate his selling in a fair and 

 liberal manner his overplus of game ; not, of course, his 

 hiring ground for the mere sake of traffic and gain : but even 

 when this is the case the landlord has seldom much cause of 

 complaint. In the first place he, the landlord, makes a 

 traffic of his game by letting it ; and in the second place the 

 tenant, who in these commercial speculations is generally a 

 permanent one, if he wishes to make money by the game 

 must take care to preserve and increase it proportionally. 



