GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



how many causes, social and political as well as 

 natural, must tend to retard the increase of the 

 pheasant in that country ! Besides the dampness 

 of the climate and the scarcity of timber, the great 

 amount of population in the cultivated districts, 

 and the general disregard of all legal restrictions, 

 are far more serious obstacles ; and although from 

 its very rarity it is well suited as an ornament to 

 the park or pleasure grounds of a nobleman or 

 country gentleman, and may even serve, as a last 

 resource, to relieve the dulness of ' a blank day/ 

 yet as an old woodcock and snipe shooter, I, 

 for one, should be sorry to see it occupying too 

 large a share of the attention of the Irish sports- 

 man. 



On some of the well-wooded and extensive 

 estates in Wales, Scotland, and the north-east of 

 England, the pheasant has certainly been on the 

 increase of late years; and among the birchen 

 glens and moors, affords, together with black 

 game, a delightful combination of sport which the 

 southern shooter must generally sigh for in vain. 

 It is true that black grouse are still to be found 

 in a few highly favoured spots in Devonshire, 

 Dorsetshire, Hampshire and Sussex and even 

 there, the privileged sportsman who is permitted 

 to take the field can seldom depend on bagging 

 more than a brace or two after the first fortnight 



