90 REMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



midable enemy to game.* The material distinction 

 between the old and modern sportsman, is that the 

 former, in a day's shooting, was satisfied with a moderate 

 quantity of game, whereas the latter is a perfect glutton 

 in this respect, and as I believe I before remarked, their 

 vanity is much gratified by seeing their names in the 

 newspapers with the list of game killed at these battues. 

 And what a temptation this is to poachers. 



" 'Tis an old maxim in tlie schools, 

 That vanity's the food of fools ; 

 Yet now and then your men of wit, 

 Will condescend to take a bit." — Swift. 



Some sportsmen entertain an opinion that the red 

 grouse have degenerated of late years, and the reason 

 they assign for this, is their having bred from the 

 same stock for many years ; but I confess I have my 

 doubts about the theory, for on moors, sometimes several 

 himdred acres in extent, I see no obstacle to the grouse 

 bred on one moor breeding with those of other hills, 



* These peregrine falcons were, some years ago, brought over from 

 Germany by the late Captain C. Sturt, R.N., who was fond of falconry, 

 and turned out in the Isle of Purbeck to breed on the high cliffs of that 

 coast. Captain Sturt was at that time owner of Brownsea Island, and 

 resided in the castle. He had Germans to train and feed his falcons. 

 I shot diu'ing one season in the isle of Purbeck, and a gamekeeper of 

 the late ]VIr. Calcraft told me that it was a sad job for the game when 

 Captain Sturt turned out the peregrine falcons. I purchased a young bird 

 of him ; it had a brilliant and beautiful eye, and had been prociu-ed by 

 a boy, who, with ropes fastened about his body, had been let down over 

 the cliff, and got the young ones out of the nest. Montague asserts, 

 that the peregi'ine falcon can fly at the rate of 150 miles an hour. I 

 beHeve no bird but the swift can exceed this rate of flight. The late 

 Colonel Thornton who made use of these birds in hawking, states that a 

 peregrine falcon in pursuit of a snipe, flew nine miles in eleven minutes, 

 without including the frequent turns. 



