28 MERCY IN FIELD SPORTS 



molestation by destroying other wild animals which 

 prey upon them, and by formulating regulations for 

 killing them at specified seasons. He says, in effect : 

 'You are beautiful or interesting animals, useful to me 

 for food, clothing, or other purposes ; it is the inexor- 

 able law of nature that you should be killed, but I will 

 take the killing of you into my own hands. I will 

 undertake that you undergo no unnecessary suffering, 

 and, above all, that you are secured from injury during 

 the sacred season of reproduction.' 



This is the principle that lies at the base of the 

 ethics of field sports, and it is the sedulous observance 

 of this that gives the sportsman a just claim to be 

 considered merciful. It is apart from, and much higher 

 than, the mere manner of killing prescribed by the code 

 of sport, for the welfare of an animal is not affected by 

 the manner of its sudden death. It is held unsports- 

 manlike, indeed, to shoot game birds on the ground or 

 on a tree, but that is from consideration for the sports- 

 man, to whose advantage it is to practise dexterity of 

 hand and eye. So the paradox is only apparent to 

 those who do not understand the nature of sport, and 

 the humane consideration which inspires the true 

 sportsman, both for the objects of the chase and for 

 certain animals employed in it. 



Take, for example, the ancient sport of falconry. 

 The peregrine preys on grouse and partridges, and, but 

 for the intervention of man, would soon reduce them 

 to very small numbers. Man wants the game for 

 food ; protects the birds from indiscriminate slaughter 



