xiv PREFACE 



proceeds to quote from Cicero^ to the effect that 

 indulgence in such sports and pastimes should 

 sometimes give way to graver studies. 



The expression of these respectable opinions 

 may not inaptly serve by way of preface to the 

 present volume. 



The essays here collected relate both to outdoor 

 and indoor recreations in the sense above indicated, 

 and the author can truly say that while devotion to 

 field sports has afforded him the chiefest pleasure 

 in life, he has sometimes derived almost as much 

 enjoyment — metaphorically speaking — in " finding a 

 hare " in the library, and hunting it through the 

 preserves of ancient authors until the hunt had a 

 happy termination, or the literary hare escaped to 

 give sport another day. 



The majority of these essays were contributed at 

 intervals to the Natural History columns of The 

 Field, and my acknowledgments are therefore due 

 to the proprietors of that journal for their courtesy 

 in permitting me to reprint them. They may be 

 said to form a second series of a similar collection 

 published some years ago with the title, Essays on 

 Sport and Natural History. 



In regard to the illustrations, a few words are 



1 "Non ita generati a natura sumus ut ad ludum et jocum 

 facti esse videamur, sed ad severitatem potius, et alia studia 

 graviora." 



