232 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



Never approach any wild thing in startlinxj haste, 

 but let them see and hear your quietly spoken 

 word and advancing step, tliat they may have 

 time to recognize their friend, and not be seized 

 with panic. 



I remember to have seen, in the Fields a cor- 

 respondent asking '' if any one could tell him wh}^ 

 tlie cast of hawks he had bred up and been trying 

 to train, after an absence of a few days vrere afraid 

 of him." In his letter he described his return and 

 '^ sudden rush to see his darling birds." 



I could have told him that, on his return, instead 

 of '^ rushing in " to see his favourites in his holiday 

 attire, he should have waited to divest himself 

 of his travelling or '^courting garments," as 

 labouring people sometimes call their best clothes, 

 and have put on the shooting jacket and attire, 

 such as it usually was, and, going in quietly, 

 the hawks would then have welcomed liis 

 return, instead of being scared by an unwonted 

 appearance ; Init these things are not known to 

 every one, and it is not every one tliat can be 

 taught. 



To conclude my remarks on this head, what will 

 the reader say to a wild blackcock and myself 



