202 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



Exmoor is gradually extirpating the black game, and 

 under our game laws there is no remedy. In some 

 parts of the forest they simply swarm ; I have counted 

 thirty close together, when driving in a dog-cart. 

 Had I been on foot I should not have got so near 

 them. As they cannot be driven, it is but rarely that 

 they fall to the gun. A large local proprietor made 

 up a shooting-party and told his guests that cock birds 

 only were to be shot at. They bagged three, though 

 they saw scores. 



No doubt it is this cause that has so nearly ex- 

 terminated the black game in the New Forest, and 

 quite in many other parts of England. Gilbert White 

 speaks of them as not quite extinct in Wolmer Forest 

 in his day. I am pretty sure there are none there 

 now. Not very many years ago I noticed some .black 

 game rise in front of a squadron of cavalry during an 

 August field-day on the Fox Hills near Aldershot. 

 As this ground is free shooting for the Division from 

 the first of September, I made my way there early 

 on the morning of that day and bagged two or three 

 brace. I dare say they are extinct there now. When 

 a boy I have spoken with men by no means aged, 

 who had in their youth frequently shot them on the 

 hills bordering the Wye Valley in Monmouthshire. 

 They are now as extinct there as the wolf. 



This, I think, is another point on which German 

 sportsmen can give us a wrinkle. Their game laws 

 prohibit the killing of gray hens entirely where it is 

 considered necessary for instance, in the Grand 

 Duchy of Baden. On the other hand, the only close 



