148 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



1880, the occupier of moorlands and unenclosed lands can 

 only kill ground game between December llth and March 

 31st. Yet these poaching politicians propose to enact that 

 " the tenant of a hill farm " may shoot, or authorize his sons, 

 friends, and, if he chooses, every poacher in the neighbour- 

 hood to shoot, not only ground game but also everything 

 that flies, on every week day throughout the year. A corre- 

 spondent points out that the tenant in question will be able, 

 if Mr. Menzies has his way, to sally forth, accompanied by 

 his myrmidons, and by a lot of curs with keen noses, but 

 under no control. A hare, or perhaps a bird of any kind, 

 springs up. Away go the yelping pack in pursuit. " Con- 

 ceive," says the correspondent, "this going on almost daily 

 when the grouse are on their nests, or when the young are 

 just out of the shell, and continuing steadily until the 12th 

 of August, and so on throughout the season." The tenant 

 is also to be permitted to shoot grouse and blackgame upon 

 his stubbles. Who can doubt that in many cases, tenants 

 will spread " stooks " of possibly worthless grain to attract 

 birds from the neighbouring moors ? 



Again, though perhaps a little foreign to the subject, 

 I must quote the sensible and pointed words of a public 

 writer who, in view of this radical propaganda, says, " Recent 

 measures proposed for Scotland are mild, however, compared 

 with that which some would enforce in this hapless country. 

 In the ' Ground Game Act (1880) Amendment Bill,' pro- 

 posed by the four English members, ' any owner endeavour- 

 ing to induce an occupier to forbear to exercise the right to 

 kill ground game is liable to a penalty not exceeding one 

 hundred pounds nor less than twenty pounds.' By this 

 clause all contracts about game between a landlord and his 

 tenants are rendered illegal. By another clause, ' No person 

 shall kill or take a hare between March 1st and June 1st in 

 any year.' This provision chiefly affects spring coursing, 

 and we must leave the managers of Kempton Park, Plympton, 

 and Gosforth Park meetings to digest it as they best may. 



