10 
WHAT IS GAME ? 
ears ; not always, however, wild and dark and turbulent ; 
not always harsh and discordant. Sometimes we shall press 
the velvet sward of the noble park, where the feathery fern 
waves free, and old ancestral trees cast shadows broad and 
deep far into the sea of golden sunshine ; there the still- 
ness will be only broken by. the soft coo of the dove, the 
chatter of the jay, or the sudden whirr of the pheasant's 
wings, as it rises from the neighboimng thicket, and flies 
across the glade, in all the glittering splendour of its gold 
and russet plumes. Sometimes we shall linger by the 
flowery dingle, or the hedgerow bank, and see the speckled 
partridge lead her young brood forth into the clover- 
patch or corn-field, to hunt amid the green stalks for 
beetles and wire-worms, grubs, maggots, and other such 
dainty morsels. Sometimes amid the stillness and soli- 
tude of its mountain home, we shall mark the Blackcock 
spread its glossy wings, or the Eed Grouse bask amid the 
heather, as yet unscared by dog and gun ; or, (rare sight ! ) 
perchance, cacch a glimpse of that monarch of game birds, 
the Capercailzie, in his now almost deserted home, amid 
the pine woods of Scotland, and, 
Yon wild mossy mountains sae lofty and wide, 
That nurse in their bosom the youth o' the Clyde, 
AVhere the Grouse lead their coveys through the heather to feed, 
And the shepherd tents his flock as he pipes on his reed. 
It behoves us here to enquire what is meant by the term 
* Game.' It appears to come from an Icelandic root, 
gaman^ a jest or sport, and, as applied to living creatures, 
signifies, according to Johnson, 'animals pursued in the 
field, or appropriated to legal sportsmen.' When the an- 
cients speak of ' Game,' they most commonly allude, not to 
the timid and retiring Pheasant or Woodcock, Quail or Par- 
tridge, or other creatures which invariably seek safety in 
flight ; but to the fierce and powerful denizens of the forest 
and the desert, such as the tawny lion, the gaunt w^olf, the 
tiger, and the bear. The sportsmen of old were ' mighty 
hunters before the Lord,' true descendants of Nimrod ; and 
such are they in many countries to this day, ^•bagging,' 
like Gordon Gumming, their hippopotami and elephants, 
and other such * small deer.' There is something manly, 
