THE BADGER 



bodily fatigue. In the name of sport, as in 

 the name of liberty, great crimes are often 

 committed. There are those who look upon 

 hunting of all sorts as cruel and degrading, 

 and cannot understand the pleasures of a 

 chase involving the distress of pursuit or 

 pain to any animal. I have a certain sym- 

 pathy for such sentiments, and yet, para- 

 doxical as it may appear, my very love of 

 animals increases my passion for hunting 

 them. Besides the longing to come to close 

 quarters with them, the desire to possess or 

 to handle them, there is the natural ambition 

 to be even with them. There is an un- 

 written code of honour in the field which, if 

 followed, makes the struggle of wits and 

 strength, of skill and endurance, a fair one, 

 and one in which alone many a valuable 

 lesson out of Nature's book can be taught. 

 To relieve any tender consciences amongst 

 my readers I may here declare, without wish- 

 ing to reflect on brother sportsmen whose 

 methods are more Cromwellian, that when 

 victorious in the war with a badger, when, 

 after many a hard-fought battle in his sub- 



9 



