VI PEEFACE. 



by wholesale, as is the modern practice of battues, 

 where, as we learn from " The Field," and other 

 newspapers, that a thousand, or even fifteen hun- 

 dred head of game, are killed in a day. This, it 

 appears to me, is very tame work compared to 

 the healthy and invigorating exercise of fagging 

 for your game, and observing the manoeuvres 

 of your well-trained setters, pointers, and spaniels, 

 which in this country have attained perfection 

 with regard to breed. 



On those subjects which I cannot altogether 

 treat from experience, such as falcomy, hawldng, 

 and deer stalldng, I have consulted several old 

 works, more especially Blome, wdio wrote in the 

 latter end of the seventeenth century, and also 

 standard modern works. I am hkemse indebted 

 for much useful information and anecdote to 

 some of my sporting friends, amongst whom I 

 may class General Shaw Kennedy, wdio practised 

 hawddng in Ayrshire, many j^ears ago, when a 

 considerable part of that county was unen- 

 closed. 



I entertain a hope that the account of my field 

 sports in the Island of Sardinia may be interestino- 

 to sportsmen, as I had a most favom^able oppor- 

 tunity of enjopng this recreation in various parts 



