INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 3 



tions, habits, haunts, seasons, and the mode of pursuing 

 and taking, in the most artistical and sportsman-Hke 

 manner, of such animals as are pecuhar to this continent, 

 which have never been a subject of investigation to the 

 sporting naturaHst, seemed to me to afford a topic inte- 

 resting and agreeable to the writer, and not devoid of 

 some pretension toward entertaining, and perhaps instruct- 

 ing, the general reader. 



At the same time, neither pretending nor hoping to 

 make my work perfect, I thought proper to exercise my 

 own judgment in deciding what species of sports are to be 

 regarded as Field Sports at all, what as American Field 

 Sports, and what as requiring description, analysis, or 

 explanation. 



Some men consider the shooting of migratory thrushes, 

 and golden-winged woodpeckers — which it pleases them to 

 call robins and high-holders, — as well as small song-birds 

 in general, as a Field Sport ; I do not. 



Many men — I might say, of the rural parts of the 

 Eastern and Middle States, 7nost men — consider squirrels, 

 raccoons, opossums, ground-hogs, and such hke vermin, as 

 being Game ; I do not. Therefore, I dealt not with any 

 of these, nor apologise for not dealing with them. 



Again. Fox-hunting on horseback, in a well-fenced 

 arable, or pasture country, is the finest of all Field Sports, 

 beyond a question. But the facts, that one pack of fox- 



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