FIELD ETIQUETTE. 



By F, E. Pond (" Will "Wildwood"), 

 Aiitlwr of "Memoirs of Eminent Sportsmen," "The Greenwood Club," Etc. 



I^HE ethics of field sports must be 

 ) regarded, to some extent, as an 

 unwritten code, recognized and 

 appreciated by perhaps a majority 

 of those wlio use the gun for recre- 

 ation, yet stiictly put in practice by only 

 a minority of the vast legions claiming fellow- 

 ship in the fraternity. Multitudes of men become to a 

 degree proficient in the use of the gun, either for glory or 

 gain, but the true knight of the trigger possesses chivalry 

 and coartesy, an inherent and ever-abiding love of fair 

 play, and his code of ethics may be considered the 

 promptings of his nature, not an acquired formula to be 

 put on with his shooting-suit, and laid aside as readily. 

 Field etiquette, in short, may be defined as the spirit 

 of courtesy that springs into action spontaneously, as the 

 outcome of kindred tastes — the genial, generous feeling 

 of fraternity and good-fellowship. The genuine sports- 

 man, like the poet, is born, not made. Wealth and rank 

 and education will give greater opportunities for the 

 indulgence of a natural taste for field sports, but neither of 

 these, nor all combined, can impart the essential qualities 

 we have briefly outlined. The unlettered woodsman, 

 skilled in nothing except the gentle science of woodcraft, 

 may show finer perceptions of the ethics of field sports 



18 (273) 



