14 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE 



of over-burdening the gillies and spoiling the dogs. 

 Even in covert shooting in the North they give 

 no sport at all commensurate with their numbers, 

 and altogether I thoroughly sympathise with old 

 Brodie, the keeper, who used to tell me that he 

 remembered their first appearance, and wished he 

 had the last pair of them by the neck. 



It is difficult to give even an approximate esti- 

 mate of the number killed annually, but the 

 present head-keeper reports that he and his staff, 

 during the six winter months, October to March, 

 kill 6000 couple on an average. About 200 

 couple a week are killed about the home farm 

 and woods, and in spite of all this rabbits are 

 increasing. Add to this record the number killed 

 by the farmer, and during the summer months, 

 and it makes the 26,000 which I seem to re- 

 member as the number recorded during one year 

 in the '70's, by no means an extravagant estimate. 

 The best sport they give, in my opinion, is as a 

 mark for a pea rifle. It is easy to get rid of a 

 whole pocketful of cartridges during an after- 

 noon's stroll over Benan, and each little separate 

 gully and valley provides one, and often several, 

 chances as you creep over the sky-line. If the 

 wind is strong the slight report of a "295 cartridge 

 is hardly heard at all, and I have killed as many 

 as eight in one place before a miss sent one off 

 running and gave the alarm to his companions. 

 Only the head or shoulder should be aimed at, as 



