THE FALCOiS^. 73 



expression ! How many of his breeding stock 

 of Dorking liens and Aylesbury ducks does a 

 man like killed by wild beasts in tke spring ? 

 And how many of our breeding stock of beauti- 

 ful grouse are we likely to wish destroyed when 

 we know that if every bird which is ahve on 

 the ground in February is ahve in August, we 

 shall hardly average, with the help of the best 

 dogs, twenty brace a day ? 



But these birds will always be encouraged in 

 the deer-forests, and very properly, on purpose 

 that they may kill down the grouse. 



No bird ever renders himself so perfectly 

 hateful to man as an old cock-grouse, who, when 

 you have perhaps but another hundred yards to 

 crawl to be within shot of the finest stag you 

 have seen that season, rises before you and flies 

 straight towards him, crowing and chattering 

 all the time. For that beautiful beast has 

 not lived in this wicked world long enough 

 to develop those twelve points on those wide- 



