THE GAME BIRDS OF THE NORTH. 



CHAPTER I. 



GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 



BY the ancient law of 1 and 2 William IV., chap. 

 32, under the designation of game, were included 

 " hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath or 

 moor game, black game, and bustards." 



Hunting and hawking date back to the earliest 

 days of knight-errantry, when parties of cavaliers 

 and ladies fair, mounted on their mettlesome steeds 

 caparisoned with all the skill of the cunning arti- 

 ficers of those days, pursued certain birds of the air 

 with the falcon, and followed the royal stag through 

 the well preserved and extensive forests with packs 

 of hounds. The term game, therefore, had an early 

 significance and positive application, but was con- 

 fined to the creatures pursued in one or the other 

 of these two modes. 



The gun was first used for the shooting of feather- 

 ed game in the early part of the eighteenth century ; 

 it soon became the favorite implement of the sports- 

 man, and was brought into use, not only against the 



