272 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 



The sportsman pursues his game for pleasure ; he 

 does not aspire to follow the grander animals of the 

 chase, makes no profit of his success, giving to his 

 friends more than he retains, shoots invariably upon 

 the wing, and never takes a mean advantage of bird 

 or man. It is his pride to kill what he does kill 

 elegantly, scientifically, and mercifully. Quantity is 

 not his ambition ; he never slays more than he can 

 use ; he never inflicts an unnecessary pang or fires 

 an unfair shot. 



The man who, happening to find birds plentiful 

 in warm weather, and, after murdering all that he can, 

 leaves them to spoil, is no more a sportsman than he 

 who fires into a huddled bevy of quail, or who con- 

 siders every bird as representing so much money 

 value, and to be converted into it as soon as possible. 



The sportsman is generous to his associate, not 

 seeking to obtain the most shots, but giving away 

 the advantage in that particular, and recovering it 

 if possible by superiority of aim ; for although to be 

 a sportsman a person must naturally be an enthu- 

 siast, he should never forget what he owes to his 

 friend, and above all what he owes to himself. 



Boys and Germans need not imagine that killing 

 robins or blackbirds on trees, no matter how nu- 

 merously, is sport. Robins and blackbirds, the 

 latter especially, if the old song is to be believed, 

 make dainty pies, but do not constitute an object of 

 pursuit to the sportsman. Diminutive birds shot 

 sitting are as far beneath sport as gigantic wild 

 animals shot standing or running are above it. The 



