CHANGE OF SEASONS AXD OF THE TIMES. 291 



good seasons to succeccliiig bad ones, more hen 

 birds should be S23ared. 



The mischief of mowing machines, too, sliould 

 be thought of, the increased number of gunners, 

 and tlie rapidity of fire, all should be taken into 

 consideration, and a greater stock of feathered 

 game increasingly protected. The most mistaken 

 custom of permitting keepers to save themselves 

 trouble in protecting the eggs in the wild nests, 

 by having all the birds the gun spares in an 

 aviary, should be done away with. The eggs 

 of the wild birds may be collected, and the 

 birds left for a second nest, and thus the stock 

 might be kept up without the deplorable custom 

 of purchasing some of your own eggs and many 

 of your neighbours'. 



It is strange, but men of the present day seem 

 to think that there can bo good eggs independent 

 of the male birds, and that they cannot kill too 

 many cocks. Through this strange error, a friend 

 of mine had on his manor about five hundred 

 bad eggs, which, of course, though put under 

 hens, came to nothing ; and, in a second instance, 

 a similar thing happened on a manor with which 

 I am well acquainted. 



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