EXPENSIVE SPORT. 
63 
67 badgers; 48 otters; 78 house-cats; 60 white-tailed, 
golden, and fishing eagles ; 1,756 hawks, kites, falcons, and 
buzzards ; 1,913 crows, ravens, owls, and magpies. Grand 
total of birds 3,667, of quadrupeds 1,055, in three years. 
' The slaughter was carried on,' says our informant, ' by 
keepers, who received, not only liberal wages, but extra 
rewards, varying from 3/. to 5Z., according to their suc- 
cess in the work of extermination.' And probably the 
owner of the estate was well repaid for his expenditure, 
as we know that the right of shooting over a well-preserved 
Grouse cover is eagerly purchased at an almost fabulous 
price. Thus, on a station not far from Inverness, as much 
as five guineas per day has been given for leave to shoot 
'twixt the light and the dark,' and that, too, with the 
condition, that the dead birds should be handed over to 
the renter. A Yorkshire gentleman, who had two days 
of this expensive sport, bagged in all 43 brace, which — 
calculated at 35. 6d. per brace, about the market price — 
gave to the laird, or his lessees, 71. 10s. 6fZ., besides the 
10^. 105. paid for the shooting license; and the sportsman, 
unless he bought his victims back again, had not a single 
brace to send to his friends as a proof of his valorous 
achievements. We read of another Englishman, who gave 
to the canny Scot 35Z. for a week's leave to shoot ; but 
then he, we believe, had liberty to keep the game ; as had, 
no doubt, a third, yet more magnificent in his operations, 
who paid down 300Z. for the privilege of blazing away 
during the whole season over a piece of well-stocked 
land. He ought to have had relays of dogs and ' gillies,' 
with a whole armoury of Mantons, and have been enabled 
to supply game-dealers out of number, to make it pay. 
Talking of game-dealers, how is it that these gentry get 
so well supplied with Grouse on the very day the season 
opens — often before the day — and that the birds which 
they sell frequently exhibit no sign of gunshot wounds ? 
Verily, the Muir-fowl has other enemies besides those 
furred and feathered ones just spoken of. The net and the 
snare are frequently resorted to for their capture ; and 
the nightly poacher reaps a considerable share of the pro- 
fits of their preservation. It is, however, chiefly in the 
