INTRODUCTION 



of field sports as contributing to the greater 

 health, mental and physical, of men, forbid 

 me to join in an undiscriminating crusade 

 against those field sports ; but from having 

 for many of my earlier years been an ardent 

 sportsman, I have grown so tender of the 

 suffering of my fellow-creatures of the lower 

 ranks in creation, that nothing could now 

 induce me to take the life of a wild creature, 

 except the necessity of protecting another 

 which needed protection and deserved it. 

 I do not discuss the question ; I feel for 

 myself, and conform my ovm conduct to my 

 feelings, without pretending to prescribe for 

 others. I have derived so much real hap- 

 piness from the cultivation of my love for 

 the animals I used to kill that my opinion 

 is an interested one, and the little story of 

 one of my experiences is told in the hope 

 that it may show some others the greater 

 delight of loving over killing. 



Nor should my history be taken as a plea 

 for keeping animals caged. The cultivation 

 of feelings of tenderness towards their kind 

 might well repay, in the large account of 



Til 



