4 CENTRAL AFRICAN GAME AND ITS SPOOR. 



amongst livestock when there is no moon to sit up by, it might be necessary to set a gun 

 for the animal, but we have never done so, and we do not think it a thing that 

 sportsmen would care much about. 



Big game shooting is like a perpetual fever — once it has been enjoyed, one 

 always goes back to it with the same zest as before ; it is not only the hunting and killing, 

 but the free, untrammelled, open-air life that seems to enthral one. 



I suppose we inherit it from our ancestors, who lived in caves and under 

 the stars. 



To be rid of stiff collars and starched shirts and all the tiresome formalities of life 

 in a civilised country is a pleasure in itself. 



The holiday-maker feels it in a small way at home, when he leaves town for the 

 river or country, and, m a greater degree, the man who leaves his office for the 

 grouse moor or the deer forest, and life would indeed be irksome without these 

 contrasts and changes. 



The first thing a boy does when he gets home for his holidays is to rush off to 

 his own den to see if his fishing-rod, gun, butterflies, or stuffed birds are all right ; 

 then off he goes to the kennel to see his spaniel and ferrets. His first question will 

 be whether there are lots of rabbits and trout about, and whether any rats have come 

 back to the hayloft since he left home. That boy in his spare time will pore over 

 books of sport and travel, and it will be his dearest wish to visit the countries he has 

 read so much about, when he is a man. At nights his dreams will be about shooting 

 elephants and lions, or getting to a country where no white man has been. 



He will not give a thought to towns in foreign countries, but only of the 

 mountains, forests, and plains where the big game exists. When he goes into the 

 library he will make for the Field and Country Life, and, whenever the opportunity 

 comes, he will be off to obtain trophies of his own shooting. 



The young as well as the old sportsman ought to adhere to the rules of sport, 

 and to treat his brother sportsmen with consideration and fairness. 



He will be taught this in the partridge fields at home ; but there are certain 

 rules in connection with big game shooting that he ought to know. 



To draw first blood will generally give a man first claim on an animal, which in 

 some cases seems rather hard, for the first shot might be a simple graze, which would 

 cause the beast little harm, but with dangerous game might make it more dangerous 

 to tackle than before. The man who then kills it would certainly deserve to keep the 

 trophy. In a case like this the former would be acting in a magnanimous manner if 

 he gave up all claim to it. Let us mention another case. A hunter might wound an 

 animal and be unable to find it. Another man might come on it a few days after 



