Grouse disease : its cause and remedies

Front matter

GUNPOWDER for INDIA.

MESSRS. JOHN HALL & SON,

FAVEKSHAM AND LONDON,

Chapter I

National love of Sport. — Grouse Ranges. — Prospects of Sport. — Grouse Shooting. — Shooting in Winter. — Great Rise in Shooting Rents. — Extraordinary demand for Moors. — Interesting Statistics. — Marvellous Selling- Value of Highland Estates. — Cost of Grouse to the Sportsman. — Rents of Moors. — Dishonourable Practices in letting Shootings. — Sport in the Olden Time. — Battue Shooting. — Views of Professor Blackie. — Wonderful Migration to the Highlands. — Sport the instinctive Exercise of a noble Attribute of Man. — The Shooting Lodge 1

Chapter II

The Red Grouse. — Its Food. — Condition of Moors. — Evil Results of Old Heather. — One cause of Grouse Disease. — Evidence on Heather-Burning given before the Select Committee of the House of Commons. — Extraordinary Prejudices of Gamekeepers. — Mr. Houstoun on Heather- Burning in Caithness and Ross. — Mismanaged Moors. — Drainage of Moorlands. — Grouse improved by new Strains of Blood. — Evils of In-and-in Breeding. — Transfer of Grouse from Place to Place. — Experience of the Prince of Wales. — Exchanging Eggs of Grouse. — Destruction of Grouse. — A growing Evil. — Fencing Moors. — Best Kind of Fence. — Effects of Cold and Wet Seasons on Grouse 21

IV

CONTENTS.

Chapter III

Another cause of Grouse Disease. — Destruction of Birds and Beasts of Prey. — Gamekeepers’ Notions. — Hawks and Grouse. — Balance of Nature. — “ The Field ” on this Subject.— Highland Keepers and Cockney Sportsmen. — Golden Eagle — Sea Eagle — Buzzard — Hen-Harrier — Peregrine — Sparrow-Hawk — Goshawk — Merlin — Kestrel — Fox. — What Mr. Frank Buckland saw. — Polecat — Marten — Stoat — Weasel — Bat. — Economy of Nature. — Evidence given before the Select Committee respecting Birds of Prey. — The Divine Organisation of Nature . . .41

Chapter IV

The different Species of Grouse— Capercailzie — Black- Game — Ptarmigan — Bed Grouse. — Habits and Disposition of Bed Grouse. — Many Naturalists in Error. — North American Grouse. — Variety of Colour in the Plumage of Grouse. — Scotch Grouse larger than the English. — Grouse as an Article of Food. — Opinion of the famous Chef Alexis Soyer. — The Highland Moors. — Sport last Season. — Our Predictions verified. — Returns from the Moors taken from “ The Field ” and from “ Land and Water.” — Proof of good Sport. — Glut of Grouse in Leadenhall Market. — “ Away to the Grouse,” from “ Punch” 91

CHAPTER Y.

Grouse Disease — Bival Theories. — Opinions of Sportsmen, Naturalists, and Scientists. — Views of Dr. Spencer Cobbold. Critical Bemarks by Mr. William Colqulioun. — The Cobbold Theory disputed by Dr. Robert Farquharson. —

CONTENTS.

Y

Opinions by Mr. J. A. Howie Brown. — Letter from Mr. Colqulioun to Dr. Macdonald. — Opinions of the Earl of Morton — General Macdonald — Major J. Murray Kennedy Colonel J. S. Stirling— Dr. W. G. Dickson— Mr. T. Watson Greig — Mr. W. Houstoun — Mr. W. J. M'Haffie — Professor Young — Rev. Canon Tristram — Mr. Andrew Wilson — Mr. John Keast Lord .... 112

Dr. Macdonald’s Views on the Grouse Disease in 1856. — Opinion of the North American Indians. — Paper in “ Land and Water.” — Letter from Dr. Macdonald in the “ Times.” Scientific Research and the Practical Study of Nature. — Reflections on the Lives of Wild Animals. — The Denizens of the Forest. — Lovers of Nature. — Deer Forests. — Displacement of Man for Deer. — Deer- Stalking. — Chieftain of the Corrie. — Delight even in Disappointment. — The Charms of Scotland. — The Queen and the Highlands . .151

Appendix

PAGE

Heather-Burning on the Sutherland Estate

Wild Birds’ Protection Acts, 1880 and 1881

Close Time for Wild Birds

Schedule of Protected Birds

Close Time for Game Birds

Technical Terms used by Sportsmen

Form of Sportsman’s Journal

180 181 181 182

VI

CONTENTS.

PAGE

List of Dr. D. G. F. Macdonald’s Works, with Opinions of the Press : —

“ Cattle, Sheep, and Deer ” . . i

“ Hints on Farming ” . . . iii

“ Estate Management ” . . . . iii

“ British Columbia and Vancouver’s Island ” . v

“ What the Farmers may do with the Land” . vii

“ Napoleon III., Empress Eugenie, Prince Imperial, and the Franco-German War ” . viii

“ The Highland Crofters of Scotland” . . xi

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Frontispiece Red Grouse Capercailzie Black Grouse Ptarmigan .

Grey Hen .

. To face Title.

5?

?5

Preface To The Second Edition

Bokn and bred in the Highlands, — a sportsman from my youth, — with an intimate knowledge of grouse moors, and having necessarily associated freely with sportsmen, ornithologists, and keepers, my acquaintance with the subject of grouse disease and its causes inspires me with a lively hope that my observations may prove of service by indicating the means of remedying an evil which has long vexed the minds of owners of Highland estates, sportsmen, and others.

It is gratifying .to me to find that owners and renters of moors, with whose interests and sentiments I have been so long identified, have received this book with such favour that a Second Edition is called for.

D. Gf. F. M.

Lymington House,

Brighton, 1883.

GROUSE DISEASE.

CHAPTER I. Let others love the city

And gaudy show at sunny noon Give me the lonely valley,

The dewy eve and rising moon,

Fair beaming and streaming

Her silver light the boughs among.

The national love of sport has made Highland shootings such an important element in the value of estates, that it is surprising moors are so generally neglected. Since grouse disease depreciates this class of property, we will define its cause or causes and remedies. We do not agree with those who hold that the malady is a mystery beyond solution ; but, on the contrary, that moors are in many cases sacrificed by carelessness, indifference, and the unwise policy of destroying all birds and beasts of prey alike, and not burning the old heather periodically.

We are convinced that were landowners to apply the same careful attention to moors as they do to

GROUSE DISEASE.

farms, very little would be heard of grouse disease. The marvel is that it is not more prevalent considering how many of the grouse ranges are mismanaged by allowing the growth of unwholesome food for the birds and upsetting the organization of nature, instead of being guided by her unerring laws. The penalty of such folly is, as a matter of course, grouse disease.

Come forth into the light of things,

Let Nature be your Teacher.

We took a great deal of trouble to get trustworthy information as to the prospects of the moors for 1882, and we published the result in the Press in July. Since then the tidings as to the crop of grouse have fully confirmed our predictions ; and the gloomy forebodings of some discontented persons have been proved to have been greatly exaggerated. Spread over so large an area of the British Islands as the red grouse is, the reports naturally vary considerably. The accounts received by us, together with the consignments of birds to the South, and the Press reports, testify that on the high grounds sport has been fairly good, whilst on the low-lying moors grouse were not only plentiful but in excellent condition, with few exceptions,— all, in short, that the most cynical gunner could have desired. On some of the very high lands the birds were not altogether free from disease, which was more prevalent in Ayrshire, Perthshire, Inverness-shire, and Caithness. On the English and Welsh moors sport has been much above the average, and

GROUSE SHOOTING.

far better than in 1881. A few birds were found dead, which the sportsmen attributed to indigestion.

There is hardly any kind of rural sport of which the characteristics are so picturesque as those of grouse shooting. It is at the golden time of the year, when everything in nature is so beautiful, that we seek out the heath-frequenting broods ; when the dear old straths and glens, the sweet heather air, and the birch and hazel, the ferns and ash saplings, the wild lakes and streams and foaming falls, the hills and mountains, are at their best. Truly “ Caledonia stern and wild” is the El Dorado — the happy chosen land of the grouse shooter.

Hie away, liie away,

Over bank and over brae,

Where the copsewood is the greenest,

Where the lady fern grows strongest,

Where the morning dew lies longest,

Where the blackcock sweetest sips it,

Where the fairy latest trips it ;

Hie to haunts right seldom seen,

Lovely, lonesome, cool, and green.

Over bank and over brae,

Hie away ! Hie away !

Even in the depth of winter shooting has its attractions. The world of nature is more open to us. Especially lovely are the lakes and meres when frost has bound the land in its iron chain, when the hills and vales are clad in snow, and the wild fowl peal forth sweet music to the whistling winds as they

1 *

WINTER SHOOTING.

tread and break the frozen rotting reeds glittering in the clear sunlight. Verily there is a charm in winter shooting that the true sportsman feels as he pursues his quarry through the snow, under a dark blue sky or a bright moonlight night, as he sees coot, teal, and widgeon on the crystal lake, and hears overhead the call-notes of wild-fowl as they fly from mere to mere. For pleasant memories of sport give us the hills and glens and lakes and meres of bonnie Scotland, whether in summer, autumn or winter — they are ever full of interest to the sportsman and naturalist.

At times, too, the shooter falls in with whole battalions of wild swans, although we admit that his chances of bagging

That lovely thing,

Oaring with rosy feet its silver boat,

are few and far between. They are seldom to be met with except in severe winter ; but as their flight is very low they are not difficult of approach. In all animated nature there is hardly a more brilliant sight than a flight of swans, their spotless robes glistening in the clear golden light of the winter’s sun. We can never forget the thrill of delight when we shot for the first time one of these magnificent creatures in the Cromarty Frith. It was a fine specimen, of nineteen pounds weight, with splendid plumage. Although we considered this as an epoch in our life we have often almost repented the destruction of so lovely a bird.

The eager demand for grouse-moors, and the enor-

RENTS OF GROUSE MOORS.

mous rents now given, are evidence of the rapid growth of the world’s wealth, and that the interest taken in the feathered denizens of the hills is not flagging. There are many examples of the marvellous increase of rents within the last forty or fifty years, as the following statement condensed from the “ Quarterly Review ” shows. In the counties of Perth, Inverness, and Ross, Highland properties have doubled in value within the last forty-five years. The shootings of Glen Urquhart were in 1836 let for one hundred pounds ; they now produce a rental of about two thousand pounds. The Glen Morison moors were rented for one hundred pounds in 1835; they now bring in nearly three thousand pounds a year. The shootings attached to the Erchless Castle, as well as those of Fasnakyle, may be taken as fair examples of the rise of shooting-rents. These have increased at least twenty times in value in the course of as many years. One of the first shootings let was Monalia or Coignafearn, on which moors the river Findorn has its source. They are the property of the Mackintosh, and were first let to a Mr. Windsor at a rent of thirty pounds, with five pounds given back as a luckpenny. Some twenty years ago these shootings were let at rents varying from three hundred pounds to five hundred pounds. The Aberarder moors were on lease forty years ago at seventy pounds ; the rent has been for years back, on an average, four hundred pounds. Stratherrick, for years let at an exceedingly

GREAT GROUSE DISTRICTS.

small rental, now brings in annually about six thousand six hundred pounds, besides what is retained by the proprietors for their own sport. These facts may be taken as a sample of the effects resulting from the growing taste for Highland life and Highland sports. A glance at the lists of shooting quarters to be let will give some idea of the scale of prices demanded. We find Upper Ivillin (seventeen thousand acres) advertised at five hundred and fifty pounds; Glenquoich, one thousand seven hundred pounds ; the Macdonald estates in Skye, an aggregate of one thousand two hundred and fifty pounds ; Auchonachie and Cabaan, seven hundred pounds ; Kinlochluichart, two thousand pounds; Kinlochewe, one thousand two hundred pounds; Upper Strathmore, and other ranges belonging to the same proprietor, one thousand and forty-seven pounds. In one list alone we count more than two hundred names of northern shooting quarters actually in occupation. It is to be remembered that these consist only of such as have come under the immediate notice of one agent alone.

The Duke of Sutherland’s extensive shootings and forests are so well known for their excellent sporting qualities that, at the time we write, none remain to be let. The other great grouse districts in rotation after Stratherrick, south of Inverness, are Strath Nairn, Strathdearn, and Strathspey ; all of which are noted for sport, and bring rents equal to any in Scotland. In fact, shootings and deer-forests make up a

DEMAND FOR HIGHLAND SHOOTINGS.

very considerable portion of the rent-rolls of Highland properties. They bring the highest rentals, and when put in the market they fetch large prices. And, whatever may be said to the contrary, we believe we are fully justified in considering that northern estates represent the capital which they bring at the hammer in public competition.

Fifty years ago, the very names of the greater part of these places were unheard of beyond their own immediate neighbourhood, and the game made no return whatever to the proprietor of the land. Since then rents have gone on steadily increasing. The late Mr. Snowie, of Inverness, who was so well known in connection with Highland shootings, now represented by his sons, had been in the habit for years of publishing an advertisement-sheet of places to be let. His first list was printed in 183(1. It contained only eio’ht advertisements; but the demand for moors has increased so steadily that for nearly twenty years he had printed three, sometimes four, lists each year, and circulated as many as one thousand five hundred copies annually. We are informed that the demand for shootings in the north is so great that there are hardly any now in the market, although higher and higher rents are given year after year ; also, that the moors and forests are now taken so much on lease that there will be fewer to be let by the season hereafter. In short, that it will soon be difficult to get any at all by the season.

STATISTICS OF GEOUSE SHOOTINGS.

We gather the following information from Mr. H. C. Fraser’s interesting and useful little work on “ The Land Statistics of the Shires of Inverness, Ross, and Cromarty.” The lairds of Inverness, it appears, hold three shootings in their own hands, worth seven hundred and ten pounds; and nine deer-forests, three thousand and eighty pounds — together, three thousand seven hundred and ninety pounds; while the most part is divided among one hundred and fifty-two tenants, viz. one hundred and thirty- two shootings, twenty-five thousand eight hundred and ninety-five pounds ; and twenty deer-forests, eleven thousand five hundred and twenty-three pounds — together, thirty-seven thousand four hundred and eighty-eight pounds : total value, forty-one thousand two hundred and seventy-eight pounds. Adding part of fishings let for the purpose, the “ sporting rents ” in the shire of Inverness may be estimated at forty-four thousand five hundred pounds. At the same time, twenty-two shootings unlet, at the average value of those let (one hundred and ninety-seven pounds), may be set down at four thousand three hundred and thirty-four pounds, and one deer-forest at eight hundred pounds; in round numbers, fifty thousand pounds as the annual value of shootings and allied properties in the county.

According to a return presented to the House of Commons, the fixed and floating capital engaged in the cotton trade is put down at eighty-eight million

CAPITAL INVESTED IN SHOOTINGS.

pounds ; in the iron trade at twenty-five million three hundred thousand pounds; and in the woollen trade at twenty -two million pounds. What then is the amount of fixed and floating capital employed in the shootings and deer-forests in the Highlands? The fixed capital in the deer-forests and shootings is represented by the value of the estates. We have not correct data to fix the value of all deer-forests and shootings in the Highlands, but, we have the annual valuation of “ sporting rents ” in two counties, Inverness and Ross — Inverness-shire (as above), fifty thousand pounds ; Ross-shire, thirty-three thousand pounds ; at twenty five years’ purchase, this is equal to two million and seventy-five thousand pounds. We may estimate the floating capital — that is, the expenditure of the sportsmen in wages, taxes, appliances, &c. — at about one-half of the rent, at five years’ purchase, equal to two hundred and seven thousand five hundred pounds, making about two million two hundred and eighty thousand pounds in these two counties alone. Taking the remaining Highland counties, Caithness, Sutherland, Argyle, Perth, and Dumbarton, with the mountainous parts of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray, and other districts, it will be a fair estimate to consider the annual value of the deerforests, shootings, and fishings, let for sporting purposes in the Highlands, equivalent to the profits of twelve million four hundred thousand pounds of invested capital. Although this may seem a large

SPORTING RENTS.

amount, we do not consider it at all above the mark.

We have already given examples of the great rise in this species of property which fifty or sixty years ago was regarded of little value in a monetary point of view. The shootings, deer-forests, and fishings in Ross-shire now amount to thirty-three thousand six hundred and ninety-one pounds annually. The sums placed opposite each of these descriptions of property and their total value must not, however, be regarded as absolutely correct. In several instances, shootings and deer-forests are valued together, while those unlet are not returned; but the sum of the three may be held as the beneficiary value derived by proprietors from the ferae natural on their estates. It must also be noticed that the fishings include river and seafishings rented for commercial purposes; so that a certain deduction must be made to arrive at what may be called the sporting rents, which may be estimated at thirty - three thousand pounds per annum. The proprietors retain in their own possession— shootings, four hundred and thirty-five pounds; fishings, one thousand and forty-two pounds; deerforests, three thousand six hundred and thirty-seven pounds — total, five thousand one hundred and fourteen pounds; while the main part is divided among one hundred and thirty-nine tenants, viz. eighty-seven shootings at fifteen thousand and twenty-nine pounds ; thirty-two fishings at three thousand and twenty-eight

VALUE OF HIGHLAND ESTATES.

pounds; twenty deer-forests at ten thousand five hundred and twenty pounds; total, twenty-eight thousand five hundred and seventy-seven pounds. There are also six shootings unlet, which, at the average value of those let, amount to one thousand and fortyeight pounds. Thus then we have a total annual value in shootings, deer-forests, and fishings of about eighty thousand pounds, in round numbers, for Inverness-shire and Ross-shire alone. Mr. Winans, of Brighton, pays the largest rent — about seventeen thousand pounds per annum - — and occupies more than two hundred and twenty thousand acres.

Captain Horatio Ross, the veteran sportsman of world-wide fame, stated, in the evidence he gave before the Select Committee appointed to consider the Game Laws, in reference to the increase in the selling value of Highland estates: — “There is the estate of Applecross, which I had a great deal to do with, for I may say that I bought it for the Duke of Leeds in 1854. I do not mean that I was the agent, for I am no lawyer; but it was by my advice and through my negotiation that it was purchased. He gave one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds for that estate. There were no forests, on it then, but he made the two forests of Applecross and Coulin. He died, and it was sold in 1860 for two hundred and thirteen thousand pounds. Now comes this most striking circumstance: one lot was purchased by Lord Hill for seventy-six thousand pounds; he laid out about

12 SELLING VALUE OP HIGHLAND PROPERTY.

from twelve thousand to fourteen thousand pounds on a house and some buildings, and that lot for which he gave seventy-six thousand pounds has since been sold in different lots for one hundred and ninety-one thousand pounds. In 1872 a third part of the estate (the whole estate having originally cost one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds) has been sold for fiftysix thousand pounds more than was paid for the whole in 1854, and that is entirely owing to the deer-forests. I may also say that the rents on Lord Hill’s part, when he bought it, were about one thousand and fifty pounds, the grazing and shootings and all ; but when it was sold the other day, the one portion called Aughnashellach, the grazing rent according to the valuation roll (it being in the hands of the proprietor, the shooting rent was not put down, the proprietors only paying for the assessment upon the grazing rent), was eight hundred and thirty-five pounds. And the grazing rent of a small forest called Coulin, which adjoins it, was three hundred and forty-five pounds, that is, one thousand one hundred and eighty pounds; this rent of one thousand one hundred and eighty pounds, exclusive of the deer-forests — for this was what the grazing was leased at — sold last year for one hundred and forty thousand pounds. There was another small estate called Monar, which was bought in 1 838 for sixteen thousand pounds, and it was converted into a deer-forest, and about two-thirds of it was sold about ten years ago for forty thousand

ESTIMATED VALUE OF SHOOTINGS.

pounds. The estate of Harris was bought in 1831 for sixty thousand pounds, and one-half was converted into deer-forest, and that half was sold last year for one hundred and fifty-five thousand pounds. These are some of the details of the effects of deer-forests upon the selling price of the land.”

In this, as in all marketable commodities, the prices are regulated by the law of demand and supply. As long as there exists a class of men doomed for threefourths of the year to sedentary occupations, but with wealth enough to enable them to enjoy the mountain air and the bracing exercise of the chase, even though many of them should be but indifferent sportsmen, so long will the price of Highland property increase and the rentals of shootings rise. At the rate of twenty-five pounds a head is now paid for deer-forests and at least a guinea a brace for grouse moors. Some sportsmen pay much higher. We find that Mr. Hall, Old Bond Street, London, has estimated the value of shootings let in Scotland last year as follows : — Aberdeenshire, thirty-thousand pounds; Argyle, twenty-five thousand pounds; Banff, six thousand five hundred pounds; Caithness, ten thousand pounds; Dumbarton, five thousand pounds ; Elgin, eleven thousand pounds ; Forfar, twenty thousand pounds; Inverness, one hundred thousand pounds; Kincardine, three thousand five hundred pounds ; Nairn, one thousand five hundred pounds ; Perth, eighty thousand pounds ; Ross and Cromarty, sixty thou-

14 DISCREDITABLE PRACTICE IN LETTING SHOOTINGS.

sand pounds ; Sutherland, twenty thousand pounds. He believes that the most valuable moors are those of Perthshire, yielding over one hundred brace of grouse to the thousand acres, and that two thousand brace is about the maximum bag in this county in one season. Aberdeenshire has, however, given the “ biggest bag,” seven thousand brace having been shot on a moor in the great grouse season of 1872. Inverness, Koss, Sutherland, and Caithness yielded splendid bags in many instances last season ; several sportsmen having run up bags of two thousand brace and upwards.

Here we may refer to a practice which is likely to lessen the demand for shootings. We allude to the attractive advertisements which agents are in the habit of inserting in the newspapers when they have shootings to let. This is all very well when the game is abundant ; but when game is scarce, it is discreditable to the proprietors, whom it reduces to the rank of huckstering shopkeepers. There are some landowners, though we are happy to say few, who delight in catching dupes, not only by alluring and specious advertisements, but by employing “ game-copers ” to do their work of deception. In the progressive age in which we live, — but we fear progressive rather in astuteness than in morality, — circumspection in all matters in which investments are to be made seems to be imperatively required. It would be amusing, were it not really fradulent,

SPORTING IN THE OLDEN TIME.

to observe that comparatively grouseless moors are offered to sportsmen on the condition that the number of grouse to be killed will be limited. This is an old and stale device. The number is usually put at several hundred brace more than are to be found on the ground. The object, of course, is to induce a belief in the minds of sportsmen that there must be, at least, as many as the number named as the limit. We have known moors where one thousand brace was the limit, where barely four hundred were on the ground. What conduct can be more reprehensible ? Factors who lend themselves to this delusion, not only bring disgrace upon themselves but upon the owners of the land. Moreover, such conduct is calculated to depreciate rather than enhance the value of sporting grounds. There are few things more annoying to gentlemen than to start from their shooting-boxes, to roam over wild mountains and glens in quest of grouse and to return home wearied and disappointed.

How different the sporting in the olden time, when the neighbouring lairds were wont to meet on the moors to enjoy each other’s society for the season, and to decide bets of rumps and dozens, to be discussed when days got short, and nights got long ! There was nothing heard of grouse disease then, and sportsmen could always count on a good head of game on the hill. In our native county, Koss-shire, proprietors and their friends occupied shootings, and

GROUSE SHOOTING IN PERFECTION.

particularly those of Keanloch Ewe, Achnashean, Strath vaich, Leadgoun, Inchbea, Aclmacluach, and Fascrinach, dispensing hospitality extensively in their bothies of a but and a ben, with the addition of a sweet-scented hay barn, that knew neither lock nor key! In the latter place, under the black rafters, which have long since gone to ashes, the varied produce of Ben Derg and Ben Cailich, and of the black linn of the romantic Broom, was annually enjoyed by large parties, who luxuriated amidst the sweet intercourse of friendship unrestrained ; and in autumn Loch Broom is truly beautiful. For a time there was a lull in deer- stalking, but grouse shooting in perfection prevailed ; and it is now nearly sixty years since a very interesting bet was decided in Strathvaich, betwixt the late Sir Francis Mackenzie of Gairloch, and Mr. George Mackenzie of Allangrange, two crack shots of uncommon pluck ; and though they only took the hill after a very late breakfast, the former killed sixty-nine, and the latter seventy-three brace of birds, showing the abundance of game in these days. The loss of the bet was a gain to a party of at least a dozen, who met at the good old town of Dingwall to celebrate the event. Such meetings, so unselfish in character, when friend vied with friend in promoting manly sport and social virtue, are not now, alas ! the order of the day. To many Highland patriarchs, the very thought of having out-lived the chivalrous convivial men

BATTUE SHOOTING.

of those clays, who so generously met to perpetuate friendship, makes life “ a moral desert and a blank.”

The sporting element in the rising generation is, we are sorry to observe, at a rather low ebb. Professor Blackie sarcastically said of our Highland sports, that —

London brewers shoot the grouse,

And lordlings shoot the deer.

We fear there is some truth in the satire, for by far too many of the shooters of the present day would cut but a sorry figure if they were not led up to the game. It is indeed a sad thing to see the old English and Scottish love for the sport degenerating into the spiritless diversion of battue shooting.

Murder most foul, as in the best it is ;

But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

It is like walking into a poultry-yard and shooting tame birds in cold blood. It is quite a misnomer to call such wholesale slaughter of game “sport.” To our mind battues are the most insipid pastime imaginable, indulged in for the vulgar ambition of topping the list of killed in the Gazette of Fashion. Genuine sportsmen have it in their power to discourage, by their social influence, such shameful butchery, and we trust they will exercise it against one of fashion’s false freaks. To blaze away at flocks of game, with a couple of loaders at one’s side, is altogether