76 BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS, 



tunate maimed who escape ? Some die a death of 

 pain that lasts for hours, others linger on in a help- 

 less state till death from pain and starvation puts 

 a period to their suffering, happier if a fox or stoat 

 ends them sooner. A sportsman would not, cer- 

 tainly, fire into the middle of a covey ; but, though 

 he singles out his bird, it very frequently happens 

 that stray shot wounds others more or less severely ; 

 and if a shot, I mean a shooter, does not bring his 

 bird down (let him deny it if he can), he feels no little 

 solace from hearing the gamekeeper or bystander say, 

 *' You hit him very hard, sir ;'* and each feather that 

 may fly from the wounded bird, the shooter feels, in 

 figurative term, " a feather in his own cap ;" whereas 

 the merciful, and indeed truly sportsmanlike feeling 

 would be, as he did not bring him down, the assu- 

 rance that he had not touched a feather. By what 

 I have written I in no way intend to convey the idea 

 that shooting is to be termed a cruel sport, all I may 

 say about it is, merely to shew it is not exempt from 

 a shade of it as well as my favourite sports, racing 

 and hunting. " Those who play at bowls must take 

 rubbers," so says the proverb. " There are specks on 



