PREFACE. Vll 



be, naturally enough, classed together in the 

 same category (without any regard to their 

 bearing on other subjects) as simply repre- 

 senting the pursuit of so many descriptions 

 of animals ; and the connexion of all three 

 with the study of Natural History will be 

 probably considered as equally remote and 

 indirect. 



Now, as to the two former, they may to 

 a certain extent be right; an attempt to join 

 either Hunting or Shooting with Natural 

 History as Fishing is joined in the following 

 Notes might perhaps be fairly open to ex- 

 ception, as a union of two subjects not of 

 themselves sufficiently connected. 



But Fishing, to my mind, occupies in 

 that respect an entirely different position 

 from the other two, the affinity between it 

 and the study of Natural History being so 

 close and distinct, as to warrant their being 

 thus coupled together, I submit, without the 

 slightest violence to either. 



As, however, the distinction to be drawn 

 between the three sports would probably not 



