COCK SHOOTING. 173 



for the sport are altogether above the average. 

 There is one thing we may be sure of, how- 

 ever, that no matter how many thousands or 

 tens of thousands of woodcocks may be netted 

 or shot in France or in Great Britain, we shall 

 have to pay famine prices for them in our 

 homes. Prices of game seem altogether in- 

 dependent of the laws that ought to rule (but 

 don't") the price of bread. A gentleman once 

 remonstrated with a west-end poulterer on his 

 excessive charge for the birds we have been 

 writing about, and was told by the civil 

 dealer that the tariff was high ever since the 

 wreck of the ( Royal Charter,' during which 

 storm the shores were strewn with the bodies 

 of the Scolopax rusticola. We dare say this 

 was just as good a reason as could have been 

 given. 



