INTRODUCTION. 11 



hunters. We are never so wise as when we know what 

 it is that we do not know. There are many movements 

 of game that it is impossible to reduce to rule, in 

 which the animal seems governed only by the caprice 

 of the passing moment. As there are doctors who 

 will never admit ignorance upon any point, but will 

 explain to you at once, like the physicians Cn the plays 

 of Moliere, the efficient causes of the most slippery 

 phenomena, so there are hosts of hunters who have 

 ever on their tongue's end an exact explanation of 

 every movement of a deer. Agreeing with Sir Wil- 

 liam Hamilton that " contented ignorance is better 

 than presumptuous wisdom," I have omitted all such 

 dubious theories. 



3d. Everything that can be safely intrusted to the 

 beginner's common-sense ; though I have been cau- 

 tious about presuming too much upon this. 



The art of still-hunting deer carries with it nearly 

 the whole art of still-hunting other large American 

 game. As a good and accomplished lawyer has only 

 a few special points of practice to learn in transplant- 

 ing himself from State to State, -so the thorough still- 

 hunter will go from deer to antelope, elk, or other 

 game, already equipped with five sixths of the knowl- 

 edge necessary to hunt them. And this very knowl- 

 edge will, as it does in the case of the lawyer, enable 

 him to learn the rest in one fourth of the time in 

 which a beginner could do it. Consequently a large 

 portion of this work applies to antelope also without 

 special reference. 



It is a common idea that shooting game with a rifle 

 does not call for a very high degree of skill with it, or 

 for very much knowledge of the principles of shoot- 

 ing. That considerable game is killed by very ordi- 



