140 THE PINE-MARTEN. 



and since the matter is in his hands, little can be 

 done. Legislative protection only leads to secret 

 kilh'ng, though it is of value in so far as many 

 gamekeepers are not without their enemies, who, 

 as a rule, are pretty well ' in the know ; ' but even 

 so, the activities of rural police are not generally 

 unbiassed by personal considerations, which far out- 

 weigh their interest in the fauna of the land. The 

 buzzard and the peregrine are on the schedule of 

 protected birds, yet during a recent spring Scottish 

 and Cumbrian gamekeepers made no secret of 

 their destruction ; and of two buzzards' nests, one 

 peregrine's, and two ravens' the writer had under 

 observation, the young were in each case destroyed 

 or the old birds shot with the connivance of the 

 local police. One cannot blame the gamekeepers 

 for such activities, for, after all, the preservation of 

 game is their business and the means whereby they 

 live ; one can only regret their lack of discrimina- 

 tion in killing such birds as the buzzard and the 

 raven, and hope that some day tenants and estate 

 owners will fall into line with the true sporting 

 gentry of the country, who make the protection of 

 rare beasts and birds a matter of personal interest. 

 'Like master, like man,' is never so true as when 

 applied to those occupied in the preserving of 

 game, for gamekeepers are, as a rule, a highly loyal 

 fraternity, readily adapting their views to those 

 of their employers, and the keeper who is told to 

 preserve such creatures as he would normally dub 

 vermin will do so with a solicitude just as eager as 

 that which he extends towards his game-birds. 



Legislation is effective, then, only up to a certain 

 point, but it cannot prevent the extermination of 

 such creatures as the pine-marten and the peregrine 

 whose preservation is a matter purely of senti- 



