OBSTACLES TO ITS SUCCESS. 231 



to destroy it : whose guns are never idle 

 during the shooting season, and whose larder 

 amply repays them for the unavoidable expense 

 of ammunition and a certificate. Such neigh- 

 bours must prove serious stumbling blocks in 

 the way of introducing any new species of the 

 gallinaceous order of birds, but, as I have already 

 ventured to hope, not insurmountable obstacles. 

 No true sportsman will regret the absence of the 

 isolated, overstocked preserve, if he can see a 

 fair sprinkling of different species of game birds 

 scattered over the face of the country. To 

 effect this the small proprietor should have a 

 direct interest in the matter, and the tenant must 

 be convinced that that of his landlord is in some 

 degree identical with his own. When this feeling 

 has once been established but not until then, 

 I fear will the farmer condescend to become 

 an ornithologist ; to listen calmly to reason ; to 

 perceive that the partridge and the pheasant are 

 really his friends during nine months out of the 

 twelve, and to admit the injustice of attributing 

 to them the injuries that have been committed 

 on his crops by hares, rats, and rabbits. 



But even as matters stand at present. If the 

 borderers on the large estates could be made to 

 see that the introduction of the black grouse 

 would eventually tend to increase their own 



