64 FEATHEEED CAPTIVES 



salmon with any other lure than the fly — one of these 

 having been hooked inadvertently when trolling for 

 ferog in Loch Arkaig. 



I do not think I have suffered in consequence of this 

 prejudice. Frequently, fishing one or other of the High- 

 land streams in February, 1 have generally done quite 

 as well with the fly as other anglers did with spinning 

 baits and prawns. In 1896 I landed eight clean fish 

 and innumerable kelts from the Thurso in the last 

 week of January. On the Park water of Dee, on the 

 aforesaid occasion, we were a party of three rods. My 

 score for six days' fishing, whereof one was blank, was 

 thirteen fish to the fly ; exactly the same number as 

 the combined bag of my two companions, although 

 they used spinning baits as well as fly. 



IX 



Probably no statement could be made better calcu- 

 Feathered lated to rouse indignation in thousands of 

 Captives bosoms incapable of harbouring an atom of 

 intentional cruelty than the one I am about to make, 

 namely, that all the pastimes put together which the 

 Humanitarian League delight in denouncing as ' blood 

 sports' do not inflict such an aggregate of suffering 

 upon living creatures as is inseparable from the practice 

 of keeping birds in cages. In the term ' pastimes ' the 

 reference is only to what are recognised as legitimate 

 British field sports, and it is not intended to include as 

 • cages ' scientifically managed aviaries, where the diet 

 and other requirements of the captives are well under- 



