COVERT-S?IOOTING. 



No subject has of modern days given birth to more 

 ignorant writers than shooting, so much so that to 

 write with any real knowledge or understanding of 

 it seems out of place and disrespectful to the public. 

 Besides this, I feel the full difficulty of the task. 

 How, out of such a sow's ear, can I make a silk 

 purse ? how kindle enthusiasm about it ? how invest 

 with romance the mere taking away the lives of 

 great numbers of defenceless animals ? Marwood 

 or Calcraft would have produced a more interesting 

 paper, for their victims were human. The subject 

 too, is not a popular one just now, and the special 

 branch of it to which I intend to direct the reader's 

 attention is the object of bitter public hostility — 

 why, I could never quite make out, but the fact is 



