INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



peculiar to their country, without prejudice to 

 their manners or morals : it is pleasant that they 

 can do so, " with all appliances and means to 

 boot," which their requirements or convenience 

 can stand in need of. The following pages, ad- 

 dressed particularly to this class, are designed, witL 

 the view to advance still further the social and 

 liberal character of rural sports. Not only do they 

 aspire " to teach the young idea how to shoot ;" 

 but to afford it familar introduction to the his- 

 tory, genealogy, and idiosyncrasy of the tribes 

 with which it may come in contact. Humble as 

 the claims of their author ujDon the reader may 

 be, they will escape utter repudiation, for sake of 

 the spirit in which they were written : small as 

 his hopes are of reaching the point of his 

 ambition, the manner of his work essays to 

 realise the principle, which he has made his 

 maxim in its construction, 



" Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci." 



The natural history of the game of the British 

 Islands — in an illustrated form — is an under- 

 tcxking in keeping with the spirit of the day. It 

 provides for the prevailing taste for embellished 

 works in an especial degree, because the feeblest 



