6 SPORT IN EUROPE 



handled in Germany, where the Association of Game Preservers sup- 

 plements the effect of legislation by granting- pensions to the widows 

 of keepers killed on duty. Count Szechenyi is not the only contributor 

 who pays a well-deserved tribute to the game laws of Hungary ; and 

 in Switzerland there is a wonderful system of federal and cantonal 

 laws, which it is to be hoped the framers themselves understand, 

 since to the wandering visitor their contradictions are incomprehensible. 

 In Denmark, on the other hand, there appears to be too much 

 lenience, and in Belgium more is expected of the new sporting law now 

 under consideration than can be credited to the old. Other altera- 

 tions of recent date are noticeable in the Bulgarian game laws, strictly 

 revised under Prince Ferdinand, and in Scandinavia, where, according 

 to Sir Henry Pottinger, the guiding principle seems to be that the 

 native sportsman shall enjoy as much advantage as possible over the 

 Englishman, who spends his money in a country sadly in need of it. 



Another interesting comparison suggested by a perusal of these 



articles is the very different esteem in which the same animal may be 



held in almost neighbouring countries. Thus the hare, 



Popularity ^^^ animal of secondary importance in these islands 



of Different 



Animals (and Lord Granville Gordon certainly pays it no high 



compliment), is evidently the great attraction in many 

 of the larorer Dutch and Belgian shoots ; while the fox, shot as vermin 

 in parts of Scotland — a heresy that would raise an outcry south of 

 the Tweed — is in Denmark " considered the finest and most appre- 

 ciated game at a drive." In like manner, the lynx, referred to as 

 the most coveted game in Hungary, is in Roumania trapped merely 

 as vermin. These favouritisms may in a measure, of course, be set 



