300 FRANK I'OKESrKll's FIKLD SPORTS. 



board well roasted, especially if he be stuffed with truffles, and 

 served up with well dressed bread-sauce ; but I would not give 

 the least palatable mouthful of him, no not his unclevilled giz- 

 zard, to pot-hunt a thousand in so unsportsmanlike a style. 



There is no accounting for tastes, however. I have an excel- 

 lent friend, and a keen sportsman too, who constantly tells me, 

 that he would just as much think of shooting Canaries in a cage, 

 as Woodcock, which in his contempt he classes as little birds. 

 By the way ! I have seen him do singular execution on the said 

 little birds trencherwise, — but he marvels greatly when I res- 

 pond, that I should find just as much sport in ensconcing myself 

 behind one of the columns of the Astor House, and shooting the 

 first omnibus horse that came panting and groaning up Broad- 

 way, as I should in standing to leeward of a I'unway, and blow- 

 ing a charge of buckshot through a great terrified Deer, at ten 

 paces' distance, after bleating or whistling at him first, so as to 

 make him halt in dumb terror, and give me a point-blank shot. 

 To constitute sport for me, several things are necessary. In 

 the first place, the animal must be game ; in the next place, 

 there must be both skill and system requisite to his destruction. 

 Again, he must be dealt with according to the laws of chival- 

 rous and honorable sporting ; and lastly, there must be either 

 peril, or the excitement of rapid pursuit and emulous compe- 

 tition in his pursuit. 



Barking Squirrels requires great skill, and is a very nice 

 amusement, I dare say ; so is shooting Swallows on the wing, 

 for those that like it, — and the latter requires by far the greatei 

 combination of qualities in the performer, of the two. Neither 

 of them, however, are Field Sports, for neither of the animals 

 are game. 



