168 OUT OF DOORS. 



and possibly on their eggs. The keeper who destroys 

 the greatest number of these ' vermin ' earns the 

 highest praise from his master; and, to all appear- 

 ances, the very perfection of a forest in the eyes of a 

 sportsman would be this it should not harbour a 

 single creature except those which are dignified by the 

 title of game, and thought worthy of death from the 

 hand of their owner. 



It is a pitiful sight in this grand forest to view the 

 handiwork of the keepers in the shape of noble hawks, 

 ravens, martens, squirrels, and other wild denizens of 

 the woods, nailed on the trunks of trees, or hung in 

 withered clusters from their boughs. I do not believe 

 that a true sportsman would find his amusement cur- 

 tailed by their life, feeling sure that nature can gene- 

 rally keep her own balance, as is exemplified in coun- 

 tries where the Game Laws were never heard of, where 

 game preservation has never been dreamed of, and 

 where the game abounds in spite of the swarming ver- 

 min far more numerous and powerful than those of our 

 own country. 



Another and more noxious kind of destroyer is 

 found in those pseudo-zoologists who hypocritically 

 conceal their love of slaughter under the guise of 

 science, and, necrologists as they are, never can watch 

 an animal without wanting to kill it. The daily 

 papers afford abundant instances of such mock science, 

 and it is well known that even a parrot cannot escape 

 from its domicile without running the most imminent 



