INTRODUCTORY 9 



had been at such trouble to catch. This, I am 

 afraid, is rather a long story, but it helps to prove 

 that dogs enjoy with us the feeling that bagging 

 the game is quite as much a part of the sport as 

 catching or killing. In hunting a fox we have an 

 animal that is useless to eat, but in all hunting with 

 hounds we think as much of our partner the dog 

 as we do ourselves, and if a pack of hounds re- 

 fused to eat their fox, we should feel that our 

 joint labours had been wasted. Of course it is 

 not easy to compare hunting with shooting, be- 

 cause the methods of following the two sports are 

 entirely different ; but the huntsman is only satisfied 

 when his hounds have the fox inside them, and the 

 shooter is not happy until his pheasant has been 

 picked up. Good sportsmen, whether of the 

 hound, the rod, or the gun, are all near akin and 

 are all inspired by the same feeling. It is the 

 half-hearted, shoddy sportsmen who disgrace what- 

 ever sport they take up. 



I am afraid I have been led away from my 

 legitimate subject, and in discussing shooting I am 

 trespassing on ground that will, I expect, have a 

 volume to itself in this series. In America they 

 classify all shooting under the head of hunting. 



