THE GROUSE. 135 



breecli-loader when we visit tliem in their 

 mountain homes. 



It is not in the number of birds which a 

 man kills in a day that the cruelty of shooting 

 consists, but in the fact whether he has or has 

 not previously given them such protection 

 from their numerous enemies as to justify 

 him in kiUing this number. If he does not 

 protect them, he cannot kill a single game bird 

 without throwing his weight into the scale 

 against a persecuted, harmless race which can 

 scarcely maintain their existence as it is. No 

 bird requires help from man more than the 

 grouse, and their preservation is well under- 

 stood in many parts of Scotland and in York- 

 shire, where that national loss, a grouse killed 

 in the spring months, is never known; but 

 in Argyllshire their remains are scattered 

 all through the hills, and landowners wonder 

 their land is not worth shooting over ; but as 

 they know it never has been, they are con- 

 tented that it never should be. Yet wherever 



