CHANGE OF SEASONS AND OF THE TIMES. 285 



times more rapid than it used to Be. Breech- 

 loaders do not kill so far as muzzle-loaders, but 

 from the increased and increasing number of 

 gunners, the fact of two guns or more being per- 

 mitted to each person, and scarce anything that 

 arises escaping a shot at it, there is more game 

 in quantity killed and more cripjDled than there 

 was in former times, and consequently less game left 

 for the following year. 



When you couple with this another fact, which, 

 like a great many other things, originated in 

 ignorance and folly, — I allude to the wholesale 

 destruction of hen pheasants as well as cocks, — the 

 decrease of game cannot be wondered at. I have 

 often asked the giver of the shooting day what 

 game he will have left to breed on his lands the next 

 season, if he and his friends shoot every hen that rises. 



The reply to this invariably has been, — '^Oh, 

 they don't breed much in a wild state, I dejoend 

 on my aviaries and hand-reared birds." And, 

 with a blush, he might have added, '^I hu/j my 

 neighbours' eggs." 



Very well, then, artificial manure, change in 

 the seasons, and neglect of the gamekeepers in 

 the time when birds are laying (where any hens 



