i. REMARK'S ov MODERN GAME SHOOTING 15 



Game cannot be produced and kept in unlimited 

 numbers anywhere, though the owner of an estate 

 may be able to afford the cost of the experiment. 



On ninety-nine out of a hundred estates, if the 

 land is over-populated with hares and rabbits the 

 tenants leave, and the rents are sacrificed ; and few 

 people could afford that. Then if you cram your 

 woods too full of pheasants the birds will seek less 

 crowded resorts, and stray away, to be hung up in 

 other folks' larders. 



When we read of an unusual number of game 

 being killed, it is nearly always the case that such 

 bags are made on land especially adapted for game to 

 exist on, rather than for fattening stock or growing 

 rt.rn ; and why the owner of such property should not 

 avail himself of its peculiar capabilities, and give 

 sport to his friends and himself at the same time, 

 without being dubbed a 'poulterer,' I cannot con- 

 ceive. 



It is always against pheasant preserving the 

 ignorant critics splutter their pens with jealous rage. 

 They do not fall foul of the rich man who keeps 

 thirty or forty horses when his neighbour keeps 

 three ; they never sneer at the man whose hothouses 

 are full of priceless orchids that are merely a pleasure 

 to the eye for a short time before they are cast on the 

 rubbish heap. Nor do we hear it termed ' excessive ' 

 because a wealthy angler preserves his river to such 

 an extent that he is enabled to catch ten times as 



