ADVERTISEMENT 
TO THE EIGHTH EDITION. 
I HAVE little to say in the Preface to the eighth edition of the 
following work on Field Sports, first issued in 1849 ; my reasons 
for producing it, at this moment, will be found in the body of the 
book itself; but, once for all, it appeared to me that such a work 
was needed, at this juncture, and that its publication might pos¬ 
sibly tend, in some small degree, to avert the impending doom 
which seems to have gone forth from the democracy of the land 
against game of all sorts. 
No one abler, or elder, seemed willing to stand forth ; so 
“ with all my imperfections on my head,” I have ventured my¬ 
self as the champion of American Sport and Sportsmanship ; 
and—“ what is writ is writ, would it were worthier !” 
I have here, especially and before aught else, to express my 
obligations for what I have borrowed—the generic distinctions 
namely, and descriptions of the form, measurement, and plumage, 
of all the winged game of the Continent—from those distin¬ 
guished ornithologists and good sportsmen, Mr. Audubon and 
Mr. Giraud, to whose “ Birds of America,” and “ Birds of Long 
Island,” I am greatly indebted. I have not scrupled, moreover, 
to quote largely, on occasion, from Wilson’s u American Orni¬ 
thology,” De Kay’s “Natural History of New York,” and 
Godman’s u American Natural History,”—and to all these 
gentlemen I beg to express the high sense I feel, of the aid I have 
