SHOOTING FOR SPORT VERSUS SLAUGHTER 1G9 



monster bags, and the far too common practice which 

 is nowadays rife, of striving to head the record, when 

 such entails the taking of such an amount of Hfe as 

 must of necessity be sacrificed on such occasions. 

 There is a vast deal of difference between a sportsman 

 and a butcher. A butcher may be a sportsman, 

 despite his trade, but a sportsman can never be a 

 butcher. 



The very term ' sport,' as we understand it to mean, 

 implies the science of finding and killing game by fair 

 means. If it is to be a one-sided arrangement, there 

 can be no sport, for both game and sportsmen must 

 be on an equal footing with each other ; and such can 

 hardly be the case when nets and such-like abomina- 

 tions are used. It might be just as reasonably ex- 

 pected to secure sport by hunting a tom-cat in a kitchen 

 with a pack of hounds. 



Now, game may be killed legitimately in two ways : 

 either by driving, or over dogs. Doubtless the 

 system of driving, if abused, leads to what may be 

 termed slaughter ; but driving, properly carried out, is, 

 I consider, quite as sporting a mode of shooting as 

 the latter and more old-fashioned custom of shooting 

 over dogs. After several years' experience, I have 

 come to the above conclusion ; and I consider that an 

 equal test of knowledge, nerve, temper, and skill is 

 afforded, and the difficulties presented, such as calcu- 

 lation of distance, pace, angle, force of wind, bad light, 

 etc., are quite as numerous as those encountered by 

 the other method. Indeed, I may assert that, whether 

 at the end or the beginning of the season, if birds will 

 lie to dogs long enough to allow even an average shot 

 to get within reasonable distance, each one fired at 



