GREECE 



177 



been recorded of peasants poisoning- the birds in order to protect their 

 crops. There are no game laws, and practically no close time is 

 observed. Anyone may go out shooting, provided he pays a 

 nominal fee for a gun licence, and even this formality is often 

 neglected. 



In these conditions sport cannot flourish — it can hardly exist, even 

 in a country so abundantly favoured by nature. The advantageous 

 geographical position of the Greek peninsula and its exceptionally 

 rich natural endowments, are the only reasons why, in spite of historic 

 and social conditions militating against the development of its fauna, 

 the country still offers a fair field for the three kinds of game which 

 we shrill now consider seriatim, i.e. Big Game, Small Game, and 



Mioratorv Game, 



I.— BIG GAME 



Until quite recently deer and wild pig were not scarce in Greece 



proper. Deer were frequently met with, especially in the spurs of 



Mount Olympus and the fastnesses of Othrys, prevalent 



Deer. 

 being the very beautiful species known locally as 



platonion (the TrXaTvKep(io<i or eupuKepw? of the Ancients), which Belon 



says (i. 53 and 54) is the c/aim of the French. But it is now almost 



a thing of the past, only stray instances of its survival in the wild 



state being recorded, mostly in the woods of Arcadia, where, as 



also in Acarnania and northern Greece generally, the wild pig was 



equally plentiful. Indeed, Arcadia was the classic home of the 



Pasha, the Enghsh admiral in the service of the SuUan, laid out covers for pheasants 

 in the natural thickets and undergrowth of thorn along the banks of the Nesus, the neigh- 

 bouring cornfields offering ample food to the birds. 

 N 



