22 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



business, simply receivers of stolen eggs. Any customer who 

 would take the trouble to inspect one of these bogus farms 

 before committing himself to deal there would have small diffi- 

 culty in seeing for himself that the supplies for which he is 

 negotiating could not possibly be produced from the few small 

 pens and coops which the establishment discloses. But, 

 unfortunately, the preserver who purchases eggs is not usually 

 in the habit of indulging in such preliminary investigation of 

 the respectability or otherwise of the dealer to whom he 

 applies. In most cases the deals are effected by correspon- 

 dence, and the contracting parties do not meet Moreover, 

 where the game preserver happens to be one of the novis 

 homo order, or to be a man of business or politics, who has not 

 time to supervise his estate and its sporting interests in person, 

 it too often happens that the head gamekeeper has carte blanche 

 as to the breeding and rearing, and as to the supply of eggs 

 for the coops. In such a case it would be expecting too much 

 to suppose that the keeper would be guided in such dealings 

 by any higher code of ethics than that which is manifested 

 by too many a game preserver who finds time to give his own 

 orders when purchases of eggs are required in order to stock 

 his estate for the season. We may even go further, and say 

 that we have known instances where laxity by employers in 

 this respect has resulted in two unscrupulous keepers respec- 

 tively selling and buying from each other, each plundering his 

 master's manor of eggs for sale, and debiting his employer 

 with purchase of eggs for setting. 



" The result of this happy-go-lucky system is that a large 

 proportion of the eggs bought by or for game preservers are 

 proceeds of plunder from their own estates or from those of 

 their neighbours. Out of every thousand eggs paid for by 

 keepers or by short-sighted masters a large percentage, possibly 

 as much as two-thirds, are not in any way additions to the 

 resources of the district, but are simply passing through the 

 hand of stealers and dealers to return". to the several estates 

 whence they were originally- pilfered. The- bona fide game 

 farms of the kingdom will barely yield a fourth, if so much, of 

 all the game eggs that are marketed in the May of any year. 

 The rest of the supply come from illicit sources, and in no 

 way swell the production of game in the country; they are 

 at best transfers from Peter to Paul and vice versa, through 

 the medium of thieves, who rob both in turn, and trade to their 

 victims the proceeds of their own or their neighbours' 

 manors." 



