250 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



fession of poaching has received of late years from 

 the misapplied sympathy of morbid humanity-mon- 

 gers and the verdict of many a magisterial bench, 

 it may be observed that the decrease of game in 

 many parts of the British islands is to be attri- 

 buted rather to the interference of man, than to 

 depredations of certain native quadrupeds a 

 fearfully reduced list, alas ! on whose devoted 

 heads the full wrath of the keeper has for years 

 been indiscriminately poured. 



How is it that in newly discovered countries 

 and in thinly inhabited regions, various kinds of 

 gallinaceous birds are found to flourish in a wild 

 state, to ' increase and multiply ' though exposed 

 to the unrestrained attacks of various predatory 

 animals, furred and feathered, whom Nature 

 ever just has placed as salutary checks on the 

 excessive augmentation of their numbers, while, 

 conversely, the increase of population and the 

 diminution of all kinds of game are simultaneous ? 

 Look at the wild turkey in America. See how 

 he has receded before the destroying breath of 

 civilization. The same has once occurred with 

 the capercaillie in Scotland, and the laxity of the 

 game laws in Sweden has already banished him 

 from many of the Scandinavian provinces. The 

 bustard is an example at our own doors. The 

 pintado, or Guinea fowl, in certain maritime 



