SCOTCH BLA CK- GAME 255 



I regret to find that black-game are sent both to 

 Glasgow and Dublin as foreign game, when they are 

 really out of season ; and I have little doubt that 

 partridges also find their way there when they are 

 protected by law. 



Some years ago I wrote to the editors of some of 

 the sporting papers, informing them of this fact ; but 

 it is a difficult matter to make people believe that a 

 keeper can ever be such a useless appendage to a 

 shooting. Nevertheless, I have often been aware 

 that at the very time when the keeper has been 

 snoring in bed, afraid to show his whiskified face out- 

 side of his door, the poachers' scouts were keeping 

 guard outside ; and night after nii^ht the nets were 

 doing their work on the property of my neighbour, 

 who refused to believe me for years, though eventually 

 he was forced to do so, at his cost. 



