INTEODUCTION. 



So many books have been written upon guns and shooting 

 that no apology is needed for publishing a guide to them. 

 Incomplete and inadequate as the compilation may be, it 

 is better than none at all ; for, if practical utility be the 

 standard by which to measure the value of technical books, 

 few will rank higher in the estimation of students than do 

 bibliographies. 



To the book collector this work will be probably of little 

 value : it was compiled for the use of a writer, not a book 

 buyer, and is both conceived and arranged with a view to 

 best serving the needs of the student. 



Having departed from the customary method of arrange- 

 ment, a short explanation is desirable. The classification 

 of books according to the accident of the initial letter of the 

 name of the person writing them entails much additional 

 labour upon all who consult a bibliography in order to 

 identify a book, instead of for information concerning the 

 writer of it; the arrangement of books alphabetically by 

 titles is equally objectionable ; and the method of Rumpf , 

 who classed the books in accordance with their size, is 

 worst of all. The classification by authors' names is a 

 survival : in days when authors were few, men of erudition 

 were supposed to know at least the names of all, and 

 doubtless possessed some idea as to the dates at which the 

 various authors wrote. Now authors are numerous, and 

 the persons who most often consult a bibliography, what- 



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