SPORT AND SLAUGHTER 251 



I am asked to account for the fact I cannot do it. 

 I have often said to myself that it would almost seem, 

 at least that the effect is, as if there were some mys- 

 terious law of nature to forbid the undue increase 

 of any one kind of creature, with some ' Hitherto 

 shalt thou come and no farther ' almost as if the 

 air of the globe were only sufficient for the support 

 of life of a fixed and limited number of each and 

 every kind." 



It was not sport (and this cannot be too strongly 

 emphasised), but cruel and senseless sport, against 

 which he declared war, and carried it on vigorously 

 for so many years. To him the battue itself was the 

 height of paltriness, and the means used for its sup- 

 port much worse than contemptible, abounding as 

 it did in cruelty, and seriously interfering with the 

 balance of nature, without which many interesting 

 species of birds must be exterminated. To show 

 in how ruthless a way hawks, for instance, are 

 destroyed by keepers, a friend once wrote to say 

 what was done in this way on the estate of a neigh- 

 bouring nobleman. The truthfulness of the story 

 could be entirely depended on, and good use was 

 afterwards made of it. It was this : 



" The keeper here found a hawk's nest this year 

 with five young ones in it. He took four and killed 

 them, but left one with its wings clipped as a decoy 

 to destroy the old ones by. They were both shot 

 the next day in the act of feeding the young one, 

 and the keeper thought it was done with. The next 

 day he came again, and found two other charitable 



