AND ANGLING SONGS. 149 



bellowings ; and were they to keep their stately presences within 

 the precincts of the sanctum, and simply indulge in their noisy 

 demonstrations of amorous jealousy, there could be no cause of 

 complaint. The sweet juicy bulbs, however, held in reserve by 

 the farmer for the Christmas and Easter fare of his half-breds, 

 prove a temptation not easily resisted by the antlered monarchs. 

 Nor would the agriculturist grudge them their mouthful did they 

 take it in thinking moderation, influenced by some slight sense 

 of gratitude or notion of economy. The lord of the mountains, 

 however, when walking in the track of the plough, is above all 

 this. Sniffing, with lifted nostril, his way to the promised land, 

 he commences, on entering it, his attack, right and left, on the 

 Swedes and purple-tops. From bulb to bulb on he marches, 

 nipping out from each the single savoury morsel, and leaving 

 Jack Frost, who usually presses hard on his rear, to demolish 

 what is left. No wonder the muds are up in arms, and the tiller 

 of the soil swears utter extermination to these cervine invaders. 



The state of the law in Scotland is such, it appears, that 

 scarcely any hindrance is given by it to deer-poaching; and 

 unless prevented from doing so by express terms in his lease, the 

 unlicensed tenant of the ground or farm may not only slay 

 deer of the indigenous species, when intruding on his fields, but 

 appropriate the bodies of the animals so slain without incurring 

 one farthing's penalty. The only protection afforded is in the 

 case of the ground being properly fenced in, and made subject to 

 forest and park laws. What is called a forest, however, by this 

 or that Highland proprietor, simply because he chooses so to 

 term and employ it, conveys no privilege as a deer sanctuary, 

 unless enclosed according to terms of Statute. I am acquainted 

 with an instance, in relation to the Coul estates, where the lessee 

 of the deer-shootings failed in obtaining the smallest redress from 

 the tenant of the soil, on the occasion of the latter shooting several 

 hinds when in the act of making free with his standing crop. It 



