974 SUGGESTIONS To SPORTSMEN. 
Death before the muzzle ofa gun, in the hands of 
an experienced marksman, when the body of the 
charge striking the object terminates life instantly— 
and even when, in the hands of a bungler, the wounded 
bird is not put out of his pain till he is retrieved—is 
far more merciful than after capture in a trap, accom- 
panied with agonies of apprehension and perhaps 
days of starvation, till the thoughtless boy shall 
remember his snare and awkwardly end life. The 
birds of the air and beasts of the field are given for 
man’s use and advantage, whether domesticatec, 
or wild as they once all were; and if they serve to 
supply him with food or healthful exercise, and espe- 
cially if they do both, they have answered their pur- 
pose. It is certainly no more brutalizing to shoot 
them on the wing or in the open field, when they 
have a reasonable chance to escape, than to wring 
their necks in the barn-yard, or knock them on the 
head with an axe. 
To become a sportsman, the first thing to acquire 
—provided nature has kindly furnished the pro- 
per groundwork of heart and body, without which 
little can be done—is the art of shooting. <A few, 
very few men become, through fortuitous circum- 
stances of nature and practice, splendid shots ; many 
_ shoot well, and some cannot shoot at all. The 
author of this work has handled a gun from his 
twelfth year, and been out with thousands of sports- 
men, but he never yet saw a dead shot—one who 
can kill every time. 
Crack shots, however, are numerous; and include, 
