THE ROMANCE OF SPORTING, 



CHAPTER I. 



BIRD, BEAST AND HUNTER. 



THE air is filled with birds that fly, and are pursued by 

 bird and beast. The earth, with beasts that run, and are 

 pursued by beast and bird ; while man, in a world of pursuers 

 and pursued, is chief hunter of them all ! 



Whatever may have been the case in primeval times, it 

 certainly seems very natural now that our relations to the living 

 creatures by which we are surrounded should be mainly 1 hose 

 of hunter and the hunted ; and that these relations should be 

 most immediate to bird and beast seems equally of course, 

 since they more nearly approach us on the ascending scale 



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