INTRODUCTION. 5 
apt to follow a careless exposure of oneself to cold and heat, at 
all hours of night and day. Though by habit and repute a 
being strongly endowed with the organ of destructiveness, I 
take equal delight in collecting round me all living animals, and 
watching their habits and instincts; my abode is, in short, a 
miniature menagerie. My dogs learn to respect the persons of 
domesticated wild animals of all kinds, and my pointers live in 
amity with tame partridges and pheasants; my retrievers lounge 
about amidst my wild-fowl, and my terriers and beagles strike 
up friendship with the animals of different kinds whose capture 
they have assisted in, and with whose relatives they are ready to 
wage war to the death. A common and well kept truce exists 
with one and all. My boys, who are of the most bird-nesting 
‘age (eight and nine years old), instead of disturbing the num- 
berless birds who breed in the garden and shrubberies, in full 
confidence of protection and immunity from all danger of gun or 
snare, strike up an acquaintance with every family of chaffinches 
or blackbirds who breed in the place, visiting every nest, and 
watching over the eggs and young with a most parental care. 
My principal aide-de-camp in my sporting excursions is an old 
man, who, although passing for somewhat ofa simpleton, has more 
acuteness and method in his vagaries than most of his neighbours. 
For many years he seems to have lived on his gun, but with an 
utter contempt of, and animosity against, all those who employ 
the more ignoble means of snaring and trapping game; and this 
makes him fulfil his duty as keeper better than many persons 
trained regularly to that employment. 
He is rather a peculiar person in his way, and has a natural 
tendency to the pursuit of the rarer and wilder animals, such as 
otters, seals, wild-fowl, &c.—which accords well with my own 
tastes in the sporting line—many a day, and many a night too, 
at all seasons, has he passed lying in wait for some seal or otter, 
regardless of wet or cold. 
His neighbours, though all allowing that he was a most in- 
veterate poacher, always gave him credit for a great deal of 
simple honesty in other things. So one day, having caught 
him in a ditch waiting for wild ducks, on my shooting- 
grounds, instead of prosecuting, I took him into my service, 
where he has now remained for some years ; and though he some. 
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