viii INTRODUCTORY PREFACE 



which had hitherto managed to escape the at- 

 tentions of sportsmen. Our united bag comprised 

 less than a score of animals, yet the habits and 

 natural history of these are but little known, and 

 will, I venture to hope, prove worthy of attention. 

 When consideration is taken of the great interest 

 which, of late years, has been exhibited in the 

 large fauna of the world, an interest which may 

 be said to date from the opening stages of the 

 Victorian era, the enlarged facilities for travel, 

 and the increasing numbers of men who yearly 

 scour the globe for fresh specimens, it is matter 

 for comment when one realises that, from the 

 point of view of the big game hunter, China is 

 practically virgin ground. Every one knows that 

 lions come from Africa, and tigers from India ; 

 but there are many who, were they asked to 

 name half a dozen species of animals found in 

 China, would fail to answer. With the exception 

 of a few travellers, to be counted on one's fingers, 

 scarcely half a dozen sportsmen have visited the 

 country since Pere David in 1869 spent some 

 months exploring the quasi-independent district 

 of Moupin. Many volumes deal with the fauna 

 of Europe and America ; books of African sport 

 and adventure are so numerous as to fill the 

 amateur big game hunter of literary tastes with 

 despair. India and Cashmere present an imposing 

 bibliography for the edification of the travelling 

 sportsman. China alone is left out in the cold, 

 for, though one or two books touch incidentally 



