SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 273 
only objects of the sportsman’s pursuit are the game 
birds; not in the confined sense used in old times by 
the English, when the very prince of all—the wood- 
cock—was excluded from the list, but embracing every 
bird, fit for the table, that is habitually shot on the 
wing. Many of these, perhaps the finest, gamest, 
and bravest, are shot over dogs, where the wonderful 
snstinct of the animal aids the intelligence of the 
human; but whether followed by the faithful setter, 
orlured to bobbing decoy ; killed from points where, 
prone in the reeds, the eager sportsman, insensible to 
cold or wet, at the grey of dawn or dusk of night, 
awaits his prey; or from the convenient blind which 
the deluded birds approach without suspicion, or 
pursued with horse and wagon on the open plain— 
these all are game birds, and he who follows them 
legitimately is a sportsman. 
Wild birds, like the tame ones, are given for man’s 
use, and the best use that can be made of them is the 
one that will confer most health, nourishment, and 
happiness on mankind. Fanatics imagine that 
although birds may be killed, it must be done only 
to furnish food ; as if there was nothing beyond eat- 
ing in this world, and as if contribution to health 
were not as essential as supplies to the stomach. The 
two may and should be combined; a man who is 
hungry may kill that he may be satisfied, the man 
who is sickly may kill that he may recover—neither 
may kill in excess ; and a third may kill lest he 
become sick, provided nothing is injured that 1s not 
used. 
12* 
