198 THE KEEPER'S BOOK 



when this indifference is not so marked, there can be 

 no doubt that the general run of sportsmen would pre- 

 fer to bag their ten or eleven or even their four or five 

 brace of grouse in the late season, with the joy of a 

 tramp on the hill, than spend a weary day, dragging 

 their muddy boots through wet turnips and potatoes, 

 with the prospect of a larger bag of the autumn bird. 

 This is but one side of the question. There is a more 

 important reverse. Many sportsmen in the Highlands 

 of Scotland are indifferent to partridge-shooting, not 

 because of the more absorbing claims of the moor, but 

 because of the general poorness of the partridge stock ; 

 and such being the case, and granting, of course, the 

 necessary ground conditions, the blame is to be laid 

 largely at the door of the gamekeeper. Our present 

 readers, with their sporting imaginations stimulated by 

 a fine picture of well-cultivated agricultural land, stretch- 

 ing from the edge of the moor, in rich variegated tints, 

 down to the edge of the river, wending its rapid way 

 through the spirals of the strath, and interrogating the 

 head-keeper as to the prospects of partridges, have had 

 their imaginations often curtailed by being told in an 

 indifferent tone that there may be a few coveys, but 

 nothing to speak of. And such information has been 

 conveyed to them as if the fact finally settled the re- 

 sponsibility of the keeper. Let it be our duty to empha- 

 sise the fact that it has only determined the existence 

 of wilful neglect of opportunity on the part of the sports- 

 man, and the absence of a due sense of responsibility 



