252 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



them as they come from the moor to the corn-land. 

 Black-game if disturbed once or twice on their feed 

 will be chary of returning to the same place for a 

 space of time, and the farmer will be found very 

 grateful to you if, while enjoying a pleasant variety of 

 sport, you show some anxiety to protect his produce 

 from these voracious visitors. 



I regret to have to record my opinion that the 

 decrease in the numbers of black-game in Scotland 

 is due entirely to illegal destruction of these birds. 

 They are easily poached, and since the poulterers 

 have been suffered to expose them for sale during the 

 spring and summer months as ' Norwegian,' the 

 diminution in the general stock has become very 

 marked. No one should buy or eat black-game from 

 Christmas until the following August. \Yhether they 

 come from Norway or not, they are not in season ; 

 they must have been destroyed during the period 

 when every animal but the lowest vermin should be 

 let alone, and have never been come by in the honest 

 ways of sport. 



