2 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



and the same persecution that has banished them 

 from thence, must eventually extirpate them from 

 their northern fastnesses. These animals, how- 

 ever, are notoriously hostile to game of all kinds, 

 and even the partial toleration of a limited num- 

 ber is more than can be expected : but what can 

 be said in defence of the ' war to the knife ' waged 

 even at the present moment against the poor 

 badger ? The agriculturist, whose corn-fields 

 have been damaged by its inroads and there 

 are few places at the present day where they 

 exist in sufficient numbers to occasion serious 

 mischief of this kind or the fox-hunter, whose 

 temper has been repeatedly tried by the in- 

 effectual efforts of his huntsman to dislodge an 

 exhausted reynard from the deepest recesses of 

 the badger's hibernaculum, can show at least a 

 plausible ' casus belli ; ' but the game-preserver 

 has no such excuse. This interesting animal, 

 the last representative of the ursidce (bears) in 

 the British islands, rarely so rarely, indeed, 

 that an offence would prove an exception to the 

 rule interferes with his concerns. A casual 

 observer, it is true, on examining his teeth, 

 would suppose that he was eminently carnivorous, 

 but such is not the case. The long fangs, which 

 in most predatory quadrupeds are used to tear 

 the muscles of their recently killed prey, are 



