MORE ABOUT GAME-BIRDS. 97 



to be regretted, then was a time ; for one of the 

 best hunting-grounds I have ever had, or that a 

 naturalist could hope to find ^gam, was destroyed, 

 for me at least for ever, by that forest -fire. I 

 have described it fully elsewhere. 



Peace followed for a time, while the new-comers 

 pondered over such an unlooked-for dispensation ; 

 but at last a bright genius among them discovered 

 that if the birds belonged to any one at all, they 

 certainly belonged to the lord of the manor on 

 which they were found, and that they ought to 

 be protected for the exclusive benefit of such lords 

 of the manor. This discovery did not tend to 

 prolong the peace between the commoners and 

 the new-comers. 



That old weapon the crossbow has, to my cer- 

 tain knowledge, been used recently for as good 

 shooting as in the days of old. I knew a farmer's 

 son, active as a deer and with a grip powerful 

 as a fox-trap, who owned a crossbow and used 

 it to clear off the rabbits that fed on the produce 

 of his father's farm. The slaughter among them 

 was great ; some were left where they fell, and 

 the greater number buried for manure, but the cry 



G 



