62 GAME piieserat:rs axd bird preservers. 



brace. But their presence in the Western 

 Highlands turns the balance, and makes the 

 difference between estates being worth shoot- 

 ing over or not ; and proprietors in this 

 part of Scotland will never know what 

 rental their estates will produce until the 

 falcon is about as rare as the great auk. 

 As an instance, we know a fine estate which 

 has been let for the last three seasons for 

 500/. a year, which for nine years was neither 

 let nor shot over, though three and four 

 keepers were kept on it all the time. 



The grouse never increased, and five brace 

 was an unusual bag;. Since three falcon's nests 

 were discovered m the neighbourhood, and 

 they were regularly prevented from breeding, 

 from twenty to thirty brace has become quite 

 an ordinary bag. The presence of these birds 

 on the ground made a difference of 800/. a 

 year to the proprietor, as the estate cost at 

 least 300/. a year to keep up instead of 

 bringing in a clear 500/. ; and a number of 



