years enjoyed in the racing world. If we allow our best horses and mares to go abroad we have nobody to thank but ourselves; if we are beaten by their produce, and even, when no kindred can be traced, and a foreign horse, purely bred in France, Germany, Russia, America, or the East, is brought over to contend for the English prizes, and carries them over, surely the national cries of "A clear stage and no favour," and "May the best horse win," ought to be shouted throughout the length and breadth of our island.

On the 21st of last month this interesting feathered feature in the "Fauna Britannica" served to attract the especial notice of the sportsman, its congener, the red grouse, coming into season on the 12th of August, nine days in advance of the former.

The returns of both the above highly-esteemed varieties of the Tetrao family have been of a most satisfactory character, in relation to their condition and numbers; indeed, it is generally admitted by experienced frequenters of the moors that so favourable a season for grouse-shooting has not presented itself to the notice of the sportsman for many years past.

Three seasons since, there was a total failure of this order of game on the face of the Scottish moorlands, in consequence of the chilling and drenching rains which so generally prevailed throughout the spring of the year 1862. Nearly the whole of the early broods, both of the red and black game perished; and at a more advanced stage of the year, what pulli succeeded the former, were so weak in feather, that they were few in a numerical point of view, and were ill calculated to afford satisfaction to the sporting circles: indeed, it was anticipated by many old adventurers of the mountains that, in the following years, the race of the above highly-prized birds would, in certain low lands, become extinct; and persons who had, in previous years been accustomed to rent extensive grounds upon the moors, for the sake of enjoying their annual interesting and truly fascinating diversion, felt a reluctance on their part, during the close of the season adverted to, to renew a lease of the grounds they had shot over, on account of the great barrenness of the birds, which they would necessarily experience whilst beating over them.

Nor was the year under consideration separately and alone inimical to the welfare of this much-coveted class of game. For some years antecedent to it, that virulent malady known under the appellation of the "tape" had made sad havoc among the packs in many districts; and great quantities of the old birds (the red game more especially) fell victims to this pernicious" tetraic" scourge.

Many attempts were made to account for the origin of this ornithose malady. Some sagacious inquisitors attributed it to the circumstance of the grouse being prone to indulge too eagerly on the "aged hether," which was attended with deleterious effects to the

vital organs of the tender coveys. Others ascribed it to an idiosy cratical epidemic; whilst others concluded that the morbid affection resulted from the birds attaching themselves to wet and moist localities. Be this as it might, the coveys suffered to a very great extent from some cause; and this circumstance tended to thin their numbers during the interval the evil prevailed.

During the present year there has been a long and uninterrupted continuation of clear, dry weather, in every way admirably suited to the natural disposition of all denominations of game, in relation to fur and feather. The breeding season has been most propitious in every respects; and the young poults came out of the egg almost prematurely that is to say, at a very early stage from the commencement of the period of incubation. The broods encountered a genial spring a steady state of weather, accompanied by a hot sun; and, as a dry season invariably proves highly favourable to young birds of the Gallina family, the grouse-chicks continued to thrive rapidly in health and strength, and by early June fell into feather. This fact led them to shift, in a great measure, for themselves, and admitted, in instances, of later broods to spring up where, by accident or other latent causes, the first incubatory essay might have failed. The coveys were not only, by the beginning of July, vigorous upon the wing, but, numerically considered, they exceeded in strength what they have been accustomed to average in extent, in various instances comprehending eight and even nine in a brood.

A

"Black game" (generally accepted under the appellation of the "black-cock" and "grey-hen"), are not so numerous nor so widely distributed throughout the kingdom as the "red birds ;" and this latter circumstance causes them to be more highly prized by sportsme! than are their congenerous kinds. They are a larger order of birds, and are more delicately conditioned in the meat they carry. black-cock, in high order, has been known to outweigh four pounds avoirdupois, and a grey-hen-that is, the female bird-three pounds and four ounces ditto. This may be regarded as an outside figure, in relation to the weight of black game in general; but I have known instances where a well-fed cock-pheasant, purchased at a poulterer's establishment during the Christmas week, has exceeded four pounds avoirdupois in weight.

And this remark may give rise to an observation I may be perhaps permitted to introduce in this place, in reference to the food which is furnished to pheasants entertained in preserves; for, were the above birds left to shift, in a wild state, for themselves, they would, shortly after the stubble-lands were gleaned, become lean and emaciated when the earth was frost-bound, and the trees and hedgerows had forfeited their respective fruits to the capricious demands of the hybernal elements. Truly, whilst the briar can afford to support its fading berries, and the oak and the beech the acorns and the mast which constitute their autumnal tributes, pheasants will continue to uphold a subsistence upon the above-named fleeting productions; but, when the same have disappeared, then it is that the pheasant feels the destitution of his situation, and experiences a difficulty in sufficing those craving deficiencies which nature is anxious to satisfy.

In well-ordered preserves, the keepers, when snow covers the face of the fields, have a heavy charge resting upon their shoulders, in order to provide food for their pheasantries. Barley and oats are liberally scattered throughout the by-paths contiguous to the covers. Peas are not unfrequently used for the same purpose; but the food most agreeable to the desires of these birds are the seeds of the sunflower, upon which they will feed greedily, and fatten amazingly fast.

Some years ago, at Audley End, near Saffron Walden, in Essex, the seat of Lord Braybrooke, pheasants were literally superabundant; and during the winter-months the keepers invariably sustained their feathered charges with the seeds of the sunflower. It was astonishing how well they succeeded in their experiment: the birds picked up flesh rapidly, and indulged in this novel course of food to a voracious extent. They arrived at unusually heavy weights, and were found to inherit a superiority of flavour which neither barley nor oats, nor other descriptions of grain, would or could impart to them.

Not so with grouse, their natural food being the tender shoots of the hether, which is to be met with in various districts throughout the kingdom. There is a large variety of this graceful shrub, but the "purple-flowering" specimen is that on which the grouse is prone to feed; nor does this wild floral production constitute the food alone of the above bird, but it affords the same a covert and a shelter in the stormy assaults of the ravaging tempest, as well as a safe and secure retreat for its person during the important season of incubation, when it would otherwise become exposed to the inquisitive notice of its numerous enemies, in the character of the wily fox, the prying marten-cat, the insidious weasel, or its more searching and wing-fraught enemies, the kite, the hawk, and the buzzard.

The unsparing poacher, too, arranges his toils with unabated zeal to capture the black game, as being well worthy his care and attention, the same fetching a higher price in the market than any other class of features identified with the sportsman's bill of fare. It is asserted by parties who are acquainted with the fact, that the blackcock will fetch cight shillings "upon the nail," when a red bird may be obtained for two shillings, that is, at the opening of the season.

Although Scotland may be looked upon as the head nursery for the production of black game in this kingdom, nevertheless the above birds are to be met with in several of the forests and other extensive covers in divers districts throughout England. There are some of them to be found, but they are of rare occurrence, in Ireland.

In the New Forest, in Hampshire, they are tolerably plentiful, and are very highly prized by those who annually possess themselves of a forest shooting-licence for the above royal demesne. They were at one period of time by no means uncommon in Woolmer Forest, in the same county, as also in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, and at Whittlebury, in Northamptonshire; but they are chiefly confined, now-a-days, to the New Forest.

This extensive area of woodland is subdivided into ten distinct bailiwicks, having two keepers over each; and these bailiwicks are allotted off into distric's, which are termed "walks." At one period

of time each walk contained from three to four hundred head of deer, both of the red and fallow kinds; but within the last eight or ten years the whole of the herds of the above-named animals have been withdrawn, and have been disposed of to the owners of private estates throughout the country, so that, out of ten thousand head of deer, once allowed to ramble over the New Forest, not one now is to be seen in that royalty.

This step was taken by Government with a view to suppress the great evil of deer-stealing, which had arrived at a serious height, and which gave rise to many concomitant crimes by no means encouraging to an enlightened age. Indeed, poaching and smuggling were the popular characteristics of the "squatters" (as the peasantry of the New Forest were proverbially denominated); and conviction followed after conviction, at the Winchester assizes, without the punishment, which was awarded to the transgressing parties, producing the slightest remedial effect.

Since the deer have been removed from their ancient warren, the black grouse have considerably increased in numbers; and this may be accounted for from the fact that, the deer-stealers having lost their illicit occupation, there is less encouragement left for poaching among the Forest community; and secondly, the birds, whilst in the act of sitting upon their eggs amid the heath, during the breeding season, are less likely to be incommoded and trespassed upon by the interruption of innovating obtruders; for the deer, which were in the constant habit of wandering, through the summer nights, amid the patches of the above shrubs, frequently, inadvertently passed their feet on the nests of the birds, thereby crushing the ovarian produce, and destroying at one stroke the anticipated brood of nearly a dozen grouse poults. This course of casualties is, by the removal of the venison, effectually frustrated; and the birds are benefited by the change.

There is one great advantage which the game under consideration derives from its locum tenens in the New Forest, which is thisnamely, that there is a superabundance of a fruit called the "whortleberry" growing throughout the above heath-clad waste. This production is in some parts known under the name of the "bleaberry," and is the Vaccinium myrtillus of Linnæus. It is a dwarf shrub; and the berries become ripe about the latter end of July. Both this and the cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccus) are indigenous to the New Forest; and the aforesaid fruit affords a most agreeable course of pabulum to the black grouse. During the short season of its endurance these birds feed chiefly upon its berries, and become very plump in appearance.

As the coveys become broken, by being continually shot at by the constant assaults of the sportsman, they eventually "pack"-that is, the coveys unite, so that the broods become of a mixed character. In such instances they are more or less shy, and keep as much as pos sible out of harm's way, flying off at long distances from the approaching advent of an obtruder.

As the winter approaches, they will venture to frequent the outskirts of the Forest, and will indulge on detached patches of waste grounds which are well sheltered from rude winds by holly-shrubs,

furze, fern, and heath, in which localities they will continue to harbour, if they are not too frequently disturbed.

Being encouraged in these positions by proper management, they may be induced to breed on such premises; and in the course of time, a person disposed to possess a few acres of grouse-grounds may avail himself of the means of obtaining such a desirable acquisition, without being exposed to any risk or disappointment. Such instances have occurred on some of the lands belonging to N. Bond, Esq., of the Isle of Purbeck, in Dorsetshire, which lands formed a part and parcel of his extensive farms situated at North and South Sway, Arnewood, and Batchley, in the Wylverley bailiwick of the New Forest, in Hampshire.

THE RIVER AND THE SEA; OR, DAYS AND NIGHTS WITH THE RACING FLEET.

"Aloft the winged sailors sprung,

And, swarming up the mast like bees,
The snow-white sails expanding flung,
Like broad mangolias, to the breeze.
Yo-ho! yoho! my cupids all !'
Said Love, the little Admiral."

CHAP. III.

T. MOORE.

Fond as we are of the sports of the field and the recreations of country life, still we feel bound to acknowledge that there is a charm and delight about yachting and boating that is unequalled by any other kind of pastime. To our minds, one of the prettiest, most pleasing, and most innocent of sports is a sailing-match, in a lively breeze, between a fleet of graceful little pleasure-vessels, trim and neat in their hulls and rigging, and fitted with snowy white sails of the prettiest form and neatest proportions. Their graceful bearing, quick, gliding movements, and buoyant appearance, as they fiit to and fro across the rippled bay, or dash boldly out to sea in the heavier winds, bounding over the white-crested waves, reeling to the pressure of the wind upon the tight, drum-like surface of their sails, and scattering the white, hissing foam, as if it were but the dust of the sea-the proud-looking little clippers are the very flowers and beauties of the surface-waters.

Though scenes like these may please and delight the eyes of those who look upon them from the cliffs, the beach, the jetty, and suchlike places ashore, they are far more pleasing and delightful to those aboard them. The very idea of being borne rapidly across the blue waters of the deep, moved by the breath of heaven, and going faster or slower according to the will of the winds, is, alone, a pleasing sensation, and to a thoughtful mind suggests matter for deep and lasting reflection.

And there is, too, variety in yachting. It is not a sport of same