30 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS 
THE GAME 
OF THE 
UNITED STATES AND BRITISH PROVINCES 
AME is not every thing which ex- 
, ists in the shape of birds or beasts 
^ in a state of nature, ferce natura , m 
f the woods, the wastes, or the wa- 
% ters. 
This, to sportsmen, self-evident 
proposition is by no means gen¬ 
erally admitted or applied by the 
gunners of the United States, or 
the recorders of their feats; as will 
be readily seen by those who peruse the registers of game killed, 
in the great hunting parties which are constantly occurring in 
the more remote districts of the Eastern and Midland States— 
registers in which we shall find Owls, Hawks, Bluejays, Robins, 
Pigeons, Squirrels ; nay, even Skunks, Ground-hogs, and Opos¬ 
sums enumerated as game. 
Game is an arbitrary term, implying, in its first and most 
correct sense those animals, whether of fur or feather, which 
are the natural pursuit of certain high breeds of dogs, and 
which such dogs, whether they have ever met with the animal 
before or not, will instinctively follow and take. 
Thereafter, it comes to signify all animals which are so pursued 
by dogs for the purpose of sport, not of obtaining food, or of 
destroying a noxious animal merely, and to which certain cour¬ 
tesies, if I may so express myself, are shewn, and certain semi- 
chivalrous usages extended. 
