BEATERS' SPORT 41 



office, to kill off superfluous cock pheasants for ten 

 days after the end of the season. The mistake may 

 have arisen from the fact that licensed dealers in 

 game may expose game for sale for ten days after the 

 end of the shooting season. We knew an old keeper 

 whose antipathy to superfluous cocks was deeply 

 rooted : the sight of too many cocks maddened him. 

 By an ingenious argument he was able to overcome 

 his legal and conscientious scruples as to disposing 

 of the unnecessary game. The legal scruples troubled 

 him more than those of conscience ; but this argu- 

 ment always prevailed : " It is not lawful to take 

 cocks killed out of season to my master's larder. 

 But if I should happen to have any dead ones to dis- 

 pose of it would be a sinful waste to throw them 

 away. Therefore, it will be best if I eat them 

 myself." 



Among others whose days of sport end with the season 

 are those little considered sportsmen, the beaters. 

 While making sport for others, they 

 ^ n ^ opportunities for themselves, and it 

 would be a churlish host or keeper who 

 grudged the poor beaters the rabbits which occa- 

 sionally they knock over with their sticks. But their 

 love of sport becomes too marked when, in a gang, 

 they creep along stealthily on the look-out for crouch- 

 ing rabbits for their own bagging, instead of plying 



