Oft bit 



PREFACE 



THE design of the Fur, Feather, and Fin Series 

 is to present monographs, as complete as they 

 can possibly be made, on the various English 

 birds, beasts, and fishes which are generally in- 

 cluded under the head of Game. 



Books on Natural History cover such a vast 

 number of subjects that their writers necessarily 

 find it impossible to deal with each in a really 

 comprehensive manner ; and it is not within the 

 scope of such works exhaustively to discuss 

 the animals described in the light of objects of 

 sport. Books on sport, again, seldom treat at 

 length of the Natural History of the creatures 

 which are shot or otherwise taken ; and, so far 

 as the Editor is aware, in no book hitherto 

 published on Natural History or Sport has in- 

 formation been given as to the best methods of 

 turning the contents of the bag to account. 



s'f 



M846864 



