INTRODUCTION. 



apt to follow a careless exposure of oneself to cold and heat, at 

 all hours of night and day. Though by habit and repute a 

 being strongly endowed with the organ of destructiveness, I 

 take equal delight in collecting round me all living animals, and 

 watching their habits and instincts ; my abode is, in short, a 

 miniature menagerie. My dogs learn to respect the persons of 

 domesticated wild animals of all kinds, and my pointers live in 

 amity with tame partridges and pheasants ; my retrievers lounge 

 about amidst my wild-fowl, and my terriers and beagles strike 

 up friendship with the animals of different kinds whose capture 

 they have assisted in, and with whose relatives they are ready to 

 wage war to the death. A common and well kept truce exists 

 with one and all. My boys, who are of the most bird-nesting 

 age (eight and nine years old), instead of disturbing the num- 

 berless birds who breed in the garden and shrubberies, in full 

 confidence of protection and immunity from all danger of gun or 

 snare, strike up an acquaintance with every family of chaffinches 

 or blackbirds who breed in the place, visiting every nest, and 

 watching over the eggs and young with a most parental care. 



My principal aide-de-camp in my sporting excursions is an old 

 man, who, although passing for somewhat of a simpleton, has more 

 acuteness and method in his vagaries than most of his neighbours. 

 For many years he seems to have lived on his gun, but with an 

 utter contempt of, and animosity against, all those who employ 

 the more ignoble means of snaring and trapping game ; and this 

 makes him fulfil his duty as keeper better tlan many persons 

 trained regularly to that employment, 



He is rather a peculiar person in his way, and has a natural 

 tendency to the pursuit of the rarer and wilder animals, such as 

 otters, seals, wild-fowl, &c. which accords well with my own 

 tastes in the sporting line many a day, and many a night too, 

 at all seasons, has he passed lying in wait for some seal or otter, 

 legardless of wet or cold. 



His neighbours, though all allowing tliat he was a most in- 

 veterate poacher, always gave him credit for a great deal of 

 simple honesty in other things. So one day, having caught 

 him in a ditch waiting for wild ducks, on my shooting- 

 grounds, instead of prosecuting, I took him into my service, 

 where he has now remained for some years ; and though lie some- 



