COVERT-SHOOTING. 



No subject has of modern days given birth to more 



ignorant writers than shooting, so much so that to 



write with any real knowledge or understanding of 



it seems out of place and disrespectful to the public. 



Besides this, I feel the full difficulty of the task. 



How, out of such a sow's ear, can I make a silk 



purse ? how kindle enthusiasm about it ? how invest 



with romance the mere taking away the lives of 



great numbers of defenceless animals ? Marwood 



or Calcraft would have produced a more interesting 



paper, for their victims were human. The subject 



too, is not a popular one just now, and the special 



branch of it to which I intend to direct the reader's 



attention is the object of bitter public hostility — 



why, I could never quite make out, but the fact is 



G 2 



