176 THE RAVEN 



more humoured and a secure retreat allowed by the 

 larger proprietors on the land." The great land- 

 owner is, in my opinion, not so much to blame, 

 except for the easy-going laissez faire which allows 

 him to put a gun into the hands of an unobservant, 

 illiterate, and often bloodthirsty gamekeeper, and 

 leaves him to do exactly what he likes with it. A 

 great landowner does, as a rule, take some pride in 

 " showing " a fox whenever it is wanted. A heronry, 

 if he is happy enough to possess one, he regards as 

 the crowning glory of his park, even if the herons 

 do make free with the inhabitants of his waters. 

 He likes to hear that a rare bird is to be seen on his 

 estate, and he will sometimes tolerate, perhaps even 

 rejoice at, the presence of an otter in his osier-beds, 

 or of a badger in his sandy hills. It is the non- 

 resident " shooting tenant," or worse still, "the 

 syndicate of shooting tenants," who are the arch- 

 enemies of all wild life. A shooting tenant has, 

 with few marked exceptions, hardly any bowels of 

 compassion for anything but his game. A 

 " syndicate" has none at all. A shooting tenant, 

 of course with the same exceptions, values his land 

 only for the head of game that he can get out of it, 

 and visits it, chiefly or only, when the time for the 

 battue has come. He pays his gamekeeper so much 



