THE SACRIFICE TO TROUT. 201 



security. From the coast they are also recruited; 

 while on our southern coasts it is a source of lament 

 that wild-fowl are not nearly so plentiful as formerly. 

 Of course in winter it often happens that a flock of 

 wild-fowl alight in passing ; but how long do they stay? 

 The real question is, how many breed ? Where trout 

 are carefully preserved, very few indeed ; so that it is 

 evident trout are making as much difference as the 

 pheasants. Trout preservation has become much more 

 extended since the fish has been studied and found 

 to be easily bred. Advertisements are even put for- 

 ward recommending people to keep trout instead of 

 poultry, since they can be managed with certainty. It 

 seems reasonable, therefore, to suppose that the in- 

 fluence of trout on wild creatures will continue to 

 extend for some time yet. Already where trout pre- 

 servation has been carefully carried out it has pro- 

 duced a visible impression upon their ranks. In ten 

 years, if it were abandoned, most of these creatures 

 would be plentiful again on the waters from which 

 they have been driven ; I should myself be very glad 

 to see many of them back again. 



But if preservation has excluded many creatures, it 

 has also saved many. Badgers, in all probability, would 

 be extinct really extinct, like the wolf were it not 

 for the seclusion of covers. Without the protection 

 which hunting affords them, foxes would certainly 

 have disappeared. The stag and fallow-deer are other 

 examples; so, too, the wild white cattle maintained 

 in a few parks. In a measure the rook owes its 

 existence to protection ; for although naturalists have 

 pointed out its usefulness, the rook is no favourite 



