THE PRESERVATION OF GAME. 309 



back from Norway, many of these plantations had grown into 

 formidable forests, fit homes for these noble birds, and exactly 

 suited to their nature in every respect. Being gregarious at 

 hatching-time, their nests were easily protected on their first 

 introduction ; and now, from a small beginning in Perthshire, 

 they have adopted every favourable clump even within long 

 distance of their first nursery at Taymouth. 



I used to fancy that the last remnants of our native wild 

 cattle were cooped up in a few high-walled parks, as dangerous 

 objects of curiosity or interest. A few years ago, however, 

 when threading a moor-road in Argyleshire, I stumbled on a 

 domesticated herd of these white cows licking up the wayside 

 grass. Far from being excited or angry, they permitted me 

 to pass without challenge through the very midst of the " forty 

 feeding like one." Their neat, well-set-on horns, black muz- 

 zles, snowy hides, and clean-made limbs, guaranteed both the 

 antiquity and purity of their blood. 



Wild turkeys, imported in the egg from America, frequently 

 adorn our extensive preserves, where the rollicking shout of an 

 old gobbler, more familiarly associated with a farmyard, sounds 

 strangely out of place from the midst of an impenetrable 

 thicket. These turkeys are unwilling to take long flights, 

 and prefer to seek safety among the high branches of tall 

 trees. The eggs are bought from Indians, who sell them to 

 traders of this country ; and the birds have the real " gainey " 

 flavour, much superior to home-fattened ones. 



The great bustard is no longer to be detected on Salisbury 

 Plain or on the downs of Cambridgeshire, although about the 

 end of last century, flocks of them, like small droves of sheep, 

 were often noticed by shepherds or sportsmen. Many years 

 ago I met a Suffolk squire, who a short time before had shot 

 a female flying from one of his coverts to another. He told 

 me he had no idea what bird he had shot; and as hen- 

 bustards, like most of the Gallinidce and Cursores, are very 

 much less than cocks, and have not the rich markings of 



