FRANCE 123 



these purchases are for the most part made in Germany and Austria, 

 countries blessed with laws to protect the game that are strictly en- 

 forced by the courts. 



Yet no country in all Europe was by nature better stocked with 



game than France in the days before the spread of the 



Reasons for 

 railway gave added facilities for the sale of game, and Poverty of 



thus encouraged poaching. Many societies for its repres- French 



Shooting, 

 sion have been formed, but they seem unable to stem 



an evil that increases day by day. With the aid of a licence, costing 



twenty-seven francs, everyone is at liberty to shoot on all lands in 



which the sporting rights are not reserved by the owners, and the 



division of property has resulted in such parcelling out of the land that 



it is only the very large landowners who thus reserve the shooting 



rights. And I could even name departments in the south of France 



in which it is impossible for the proprietors to reserve their rights. In 



these shooting is absolutely free everywhere, including even the large 



estates. All attempts at prohibiting shooting have been abortive, the 



peasants of those parts regarding the shooting as a right. As already 



mentioned, it is the railways that did the mischief, for the game, at one 



time of little value, soon became sought after when its worth increased. 



and an incessant poaching made short work of the game. Birds of 



passage like quail, woodcock, ringdoves, and wild fowl of all kinds, fall 



to the gunners, though two-thirds of those who hunt them, caring 



little for sport, make use of destructive nets. Round about Arcachon, 



in the Gironde, and in the Landes, it is the nets that capture hundreds 



of birds of passage, and even at sea, in the Bay of Arcachon, there 



are permanent nets spread for the destruction of Hocks of wild duck. 



