NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 423 
practical reader who brought personal experience to assist his 
judgment. The reason why Col. Hawker’s work on Shooting 
was a success and continues to be a standard work to this day 
is that the author wrote from his own observation on a branch 
of the subject with which he was intimately acquainted. The 
result is that his “Instructions to young sportsmen”’ are still 
valuable and trustworthy, if due allowance be made for the 
important alterations and improvements which have been 
effected in guns and their accessories since the first edition of 
his book appeared. 
The wiser portion of the public nowadays, no longer trusting 
to general compilations, looks directly to the specialist for 
instruction upon almost every subject upon which information 
is required. There can be no question that this is the safest 
road to learning, and publishers who expect books to pay do 
well to bear this in mind. 
In the case of the two volumes before us the public are not 
likely to be disappointed, since the publishers have fortunately 
secured as contributors some of the best authorities in this 
country on the subjects on which they have consented to write. 
Vol. I., devoted to ‘‘ Field and Covert,’’ commences with an 
amusing chapter on ‘‘ Shooting past and present,” with par- 
ticulars of notable ‘‘bags,’’ and contains hints for beginners, 
a short history of gun-making, prices of guns, the choice of a 
gun, Partridge, Pheasant, and Rabbit-shooting, Pheasant-rearing, 
Vermin, Keepers, Poaching, Dog-breaking, and Pigeon-shooting. 
Vol. II., on ‘‘ Moor and Marsh,” deals with Grouse, Black- 
game, Deer-stalking, and Deer forests, Woodcock, Snipe, and 
Wildfowl shooting, Shore-shooting, Punting, Fowling-punts and 
Swivel-guns, and concludes with a chapter entitled “A little 
plain law for game-preservers, keepers, and poachers.” From 
this list of contents it will be seen how exhaustively the whole 
subject of shooting has been dealt with by masters of the craft, 
who, in advance of all previous writers upon this branch of 
sport, have produced a work which for the next quarter of a 
century at least will probably remain the standard text-book. 
It would be beyond our province to criticise the technical 
and valuable hints to shooters which these volumes contain, 
but, had space permitted, we should have liked to quote some of 
the remarks on the habits of game and wildfowl as noticed by 
