INTRODUCTION ii 



It cannot be said that the majority of sportsmen collectively 



pronounce very highly on the sport of shooting" the brown bear. 



In the preserves of the Grand Duke Serge, indeed, 



Bear. 

 it is regarded only as vermin and shot as such by his 



servants. The alleged danger of bear hunting is largely discounted 



by both Prince Ghika and Sir Henry Pottinger, on the ground of the 



bear's invariable anxiety to keep another appointment as soon as 



the sportsman comes in sight, though the latter writer relates a sporting 



and hazardous method of bearding the bear in his den in great favour 



with the Lapps. 



Of all the truly wild birds enumerated in the following pages, with 



the possible exception of the great bustard and quail, the „,., , ^ , 

 ^ ^ "^ Wild Fowl. 



contributors devote most of their attention to wild fowl, 

 otherwise ducks, wigeon, geese, and the like. The inlets and lagoons 

 of the Low Countries — once the headquarters of English punt-shooters, 

 and still so in sufficiendy hard winters — seem to be somewhat shot 

 out. As regards Sweden and Norway, Sir Henry Pottinger indicates 

 certain difficulties in the way of obtaining more than a moderate bag ; 

 but much, on the other hand, may be done in South-Eastern Europe. 

 In the Russian article will be found an amusing account of a goose- 

 shoot on Lake Ilmen, where one gun has been known to bag three 

 hundred birds and more in a day; and there is elsewhere another 

 interesting description of shooting geese at Villamanrique, the property 

 of the Comtesse de Paris ; while the Italian contributor gives particu- 

 lars of a coot-drive on the estate of the Duke of Sermoneta, round 

 the Lake of Foorliano. 



