THE BRITISH ISLES 369 



better if that destructive weapon had never been invented. Any- 

 how, the discovery of the i^un and the improvement 



Shooting, 

 in its mechanism mean, as regards all game animals, 



the beginning of the end. To obtain half a dozen birds with a bow 

 and arrow would be probably just as much fun as. and require far 

 more skill than, killing a hundred w^ith a choke-bore gun. 



The early days of the gun were not so hard on game. When 

 men had to go through a laborious system of loading, they did not 

 try long and risky shots. In fact, I well remember in my father's 

 time, the man was considered to be the best shot who produced 

 the most birds with the fewest discharges. Nowadays that is 

 all altered, and, what with loaders and cartridges galore, the great 

 thing is to blaze away as fast as you can whilst anything is in 

 sight ; and so endless birds, partridges, grouse, pheasants, and 

 what not, go away peppered and pricked, some to be picked up 

 next day and some to pine away. I have made these remarks 

 because the modern gunner so frequently simply goes to kill all he 

 can, and thinks nothing of the fact that the local obliteration of a 

 species must follow. 



And in Ireland, at this moment, such a state of things is rapidly 

 being arrived at. Hardly a grouse can now be found on the heathery 

 hills of Tyrone, or in other places where once they were as abundant 

 as in Scotland. Even the migratory birds, such as the duck and the 

 snipe, have been terribly reduced in numbers, owing to the countless 

 peasant proprietors or tenants that carry guns and blaze all day long 

 at everything they see. 



But perhaps I am exceeding my mission, and no one knows better 



