PHEASANTS' EGGS. 91 



risk of discovery, should be allowed to take their 

 chance, trusting to the natural instincts of the 

 female bird to enable her to escape detection, 

 while at the same time no pains should be spared 

 in thwarting the illegal depredations of those idle 

 vagabonds who haunt the outskirts of every 

 manor. An adequate number of eggs, therefore, 

 from his own beat is not to be expected by any 

 proprietor, and as to purchasing them from per- 

 sons in his neighbourhood, or even at a distance, 

 the practice is so reprehensible in every point of 

 view that it may almost appear unnecessary to 

 stigmatize it as it deserves. It is alike unworthy 

 of a gentleman or a sportsman, nay, even of an 

 honest man ; and yet it cannot be denied that 

 there are many who have a fair claim to all of 

 these characters, in their general conduct, their 

 bearing in the field, and the ordinary tenor of 

 their dealings, who do not scruple to purchase 

 pheasants' eggs every year, thus blindly shutting 

 their eyes to the nature of the transaction, and 

 indirectly encouraging a system of poaching far 

 more destructive and degrading than the practices 

 of the night-shooter whom they themselves, a 

 few months afterwards, have but little compunc- 

 tion in consigning to the tender mercies of the 

 treadmill. 



But apart from these considerations, it must 



