BIG GAME SHOOTING 5 



England States are more abundant to-day than they 

 were when the writer began to shoot. 



The sportsmen of to-day think more of the pleasures 

 of going out of doors, of picturesque camps beside 

 trout-streams and forest lakes, than of the killing of 

 large numbers of game animals. They are also inter- 

 ested in the natural history of the game, and have 

 contributed much to our knowledge of the present 

 distribution and habits of the animals. There is no 

 camp to-day without its camera. There is, too, I am 

 pleased to observe, a gratifying improvement in the 

 character of the pictures which are brought out of the 

 woods. Sportsmen have ceased to delight in being 

 photographed as butchers in an abattoir surrounded 

 by heaps of slaughtered animals. 



The term big game includes all of the larger ani- 

 mals of the chase that are taken by sportsmen with the 

 rifle. The flesh of all the North American big-game 

 animals is edible (excepting the cougar or mountain-lion 

 and the lynx or common wildcat). The two excepted 

 felines afford considerable sport, and their killing is 

 justifiable, since they destroy many domestic animals, 

 as well as some of the animals which are regarded as 

 true game. 



The Boone and Crockett Club (a strong game pro- 

 tection club, with a large membership of distinguished 

 sportsmen and writers) has provided in its constitu- 

 tion that " no one shall be eligible for regular member- 

 ship who shall not have killed with the rifle, in fair 

 chase, by still-hunting or otherwise, at least one indi- 

 vidual each of three various kinds of American large 

 game." In section iv. of the club's constitution the 



