Game animal

“ Drawing near the game they indicate the fact to their master by their movements, kindling up into a warlike humour, bounding emulously forward, scorning all thought of fatigue,—now in a body, now singly,—till reaching the hiding-place [745] of the hare they spring towards it all at once. In the midst of shouts and barking the swift animal glances from her form with the hounds at her heels. The huntsman, his left hand wrapped in his chlamys, follows staff in hand, animating his dogs, but avoiding, even if in his power, to head the game. ”

“ The players gather around a table or sit in a circle, each one being given the name of an animal; the sport of the game will consist largely in choosing unusual or difficult names, such as yak, gnu, camelopard, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, Brazilian ant-eater, kangaroo, etc. ”

“ Should he name an animal that has horns, all of the players lift their fingers in similar manner, but should he name an animal such as a cat, that has no horns, any player that lifts his fingers in imitation of the leader is out of the game. ”

“ The other way was to make a nest of your hand, and ask, "Put your finger in the crow's nest, the crow's out." You were let to put it in a few times, and then the player suddenly sang out, "Oh, the crow's in," and stuck his thumb-nail into your finger. "She said and she said" was a general, not a love game, and before what she said a certain animal was mentioned, which was previously arranged, generally a cat or a dog. I remember a case when it was to be dog, and the "saying" was missed. ”

“ They are carried to the place of diversion on horseback behind a rider, and when shewn the game, run at it with great speed, and, jumping on its back, insidiously creep forward, and scratch out the eyes; thus effecting by art what their strength could not achieve, they never openly attack any animal, but such as their superior force can readily overcome. ”

“ At any rate it will be well to turn now to the two-footed kind, the birds, and talk about a kind of sport in which birds have been used for many centuries. Nowadays, when one of us goes hunting, we take our shot-gun or rifle, with the dog for companion, and bring down the game with a bullet or load of shot. ”

“ The person who ascertains the usual pass of the game, or discovers the parts where the animal feeds or lies down during the day, gives intimation to his friends, who then prepare for the chase. The servants start the deer with the hounds, and by good management, generally succeed in making it run the course that will soonest bring it to its death. But, should the deer be cautious, and take another course, the hunters, mounted on swift horses, gallop through the woods to intercept it, guided by the sound of the horns and the cry of the dogs, and frequently succeed in shooting it. ”

“ HUNTING OF SMALL GAME.
Lastly, I mention the methods used in catching smaller animals, such as wolves, foxes, and hares. Wolves are only pursued when they become too troublesome. Frequently they linger about the villages in winter, and when everybody is asleep they attack the store rooms or the dogs, which have the greatest fear of this voracious animal; for, although dogs will brave the bear, they do not venture to resist a single wolf. ”

“ In this way, instinct teaches them that they will have a better chance of success; since they are more able to head the pursued animal, turn it in different directions, and at length run it to the ground. A curious fact is related of the cunning of these wild dogs. It is stated that when in pursuit of the larger animals—such as stags and large antelopes that inhabit the same district—instead of running them down at once, the dogs manoeuvre so as to guide the game to their breeding place, before giving the final coup to the chase! ”

“ The proper nourishment of the hunter is the game he kills; hence, the source of his life, like that of the young of this game, is symbolized in the canteen by the mammaries, not of human beings, but of game-animals. ”

“ Apart from the previous interference with animal life caused by game preservation methods was the fact that a large number of men were engaged in continuous efforts to decrease the numbers of certain creatures, called by them "vermin," and simultaneously to increase the head of game, a persistent effort to upset natural balance. ”

“ Some of them act as beaters, and the animal is driven to a particular spot, where it is caught in a large net already spread, shot, or beaten to death. Animals hunted are hares, porcupines, and wild pigs. The game is always equally divided. Being good marksmen, they take skilful aim at birds, and kill them when flying. ”

“ If not one head of game were shot during the next twenty years in England, and, at the same time, if no vermin were destroyed, there would, in all probability, be less game than at present, although hundreds of thousands of game animals are now annually shot. ”

“ Of this game we observe that, like several amusements familiar in this State, it is of French origin. [92]
No. 84.
Beast, Bird, or Fish.
A member of the party throws to another a knotted handkerchief, saying one of the above words, and counting up to ten. The catcher must answer in the given time the name of some animal of the kind required, not already cited by some other player.
Whoever fails to reply while the counting is going on, is out of the game. After the names of commoner animals are exhausted, the game becomes a test of quickness and memory. ”

“ There are no grounds whatever for assuming that the Cat has not sufficient intelligence to aid its master in hunting. On the contrary, there are many familiar instances where the animal has been trained, even in this country, to catch birds and other game, and bring its prey home. ”

“ Small business indeed and often ludicrous, this playing at grasshopper hunting. So it seems to us; so also, perhaps, to the wise old mother, which knew all the ways of game, from crickets to caribou and from ground sparrows to wild geese. But play is the first great educator,—that is as true of animals as of men,—and to the cubs their rough helter-skelter after hoppers was as exciting as a stag hunt to the pack, as full of surprises as the wild chase through the soft snow after a litter of lynx kittens. ”

“ Beasts of chase and park are buck and doe (fallow deer) , fox, marten and roe, or all beasts of venery and hunting.
3. Beasts of (free) warren are roe, hare, rabbit, partridge, pheasant, woodcock, quail, rail and heron.
4. Game, as defined by the Night Poaching Act of 1828 and the Game Act of 1831, is pheasant, partridge, black game, red grouse, bustard and hare. In France game (gibier) includes everything eatable that runs or flies.
5. Wild fowl not in any of the previous lists which are nevertheless prized for sport, e.g. duck, snipe, plovers, &c. ”

“ A determined cat will kill almost anything that a fox might take; but whereas a cat leaves all the feathers of an old bird, and the skin and fur of old furred creatures, the fox swallows feathers, fur, skin, bones, and all but the wings of birds, and the stomach and clawed feet of ground game. Feathers in a circle by a field hedge tell of a hawk's killing. Feet of little pheasants, and bits of downy skin by the coops in the ride, speak of murdering rooks. A dead rabbit is seen, and four tiny holes are discovered beneath the damp, mouthed fur of the pole—a weasel has sucked the life-blood. ”

“ I’ve a good hunting dog, and as soon as we get things in shape we’ll see what we can do. What sort of game do you prefer?”
“Anything will suit me—elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, and the like; or, if we can’t do better, I wouldn’t mind a bear or deer.” ”

“ Marked Birds
A white or a pied bird, whether rook, blackbird, starling, finch, or sparrow, never fails to hold the eye, and may become a character of public interest in a neighbourhood. Its usual fate is to be shot—the fate of any rare wild creature. The sportsman sees- 200 - no special reason for sparing a pied pheasant that has come to his coverts—he shoots it at the first chance for the sake of the few seconds' pleasure given by the curious plumage before it is tossed with the rest on the game-cart. But the keeper silently mourns for the death of the pied bird. ”

“ Passing now to those forms of play which afford more special preparation for particular forms of after-effort, under which fall such types as hunting-play and fighting-play, we may refer the reader to the copious examples so carefully collected by Professor Groos. The way in which a kitten pats a cork or a ball, making it roll and then pouncing upon it, is a characteristic example of animal play. Valuable as a preparation for dealing successfully with a mouse when occasion shall arise, this is a specialized form of experimentation ”

“ We can nearly always depend on them for certain things—fish, wild geese, and duck and teal and quail. Of course there are a good many of their delicacies that we don't touch—and we had some difficulty in persuading them that we really prefer game fresh! ”

“ After the children had spent some time in looking at the Hawks and Owls, Nat asked, "What are the 'game birds,' uncle, that those cannibals sometimes eat?"
"That is not an easy question to answer, my boy; but as we are coming to these birds next, you will learn about them separately. Game birds as a whole are those chiefly useful as food, and the hunting of them is the occupation of sportsmen. These birds may belong to the working guilds, and all have habits interesting to bird-lovers; but as regards their value to the world, it is mostly in the shape of food for House People." ”

“ There can be no question that the chief delight of wild dogs, as with modern hounds and sporting dogs, is in the chase and its accompanying excitement and consequences. One of the most thrilling moments to the human hunter (and doubtless to the canine) , and one big with that most poignant of all delights, anticipation of pleasurable excitement combined with muscular activity, is when the presence of game is first detected. ”

“ Let us see what they are: two cats, three weasels, two stoats, four jays, two magpies, two kestrils, an owl, and a sparrow-hawk. The keeper has trapped or shot these as enemies to the game, and no doubt, with the exception of the weasels, owl, and kestrils, the other animals often destroy young pheasants or suck their eggs. Still I should not like to see all wild animals destroyed that occasionally harm game preserves. Gamekeepers have strong affection for their hares, partridges, and pheasants, and consider all other wild animals as either enemies or beneath notice. ”

“ On this theory each play becomes a beautiful case of adaptation to nature. The kitten plays with the ball as the old cat handles the mouse; the little dogs wrestle together, and so learn to fight with teeth and claws; the deer run from one another, and so test their speed and learn to escape their enemies. If we watch young animals at play we see that not a muscle or nerve escapes this preliminary training and exercise; and the instinctive tendencies which control the play direct the activities into just the performances which the animal's later life-habits are going on to require. ”

“ In hunting, unless you hunt the hounds yourself, you have little chance of seeing, and none whatever of controlling, the best part of the game, the working of the hounds. Your main object is to be with them ”

“ Without dogs we killed and carried away twenty hares with nets in an hour, and as many partridges with springes, just like piping goats to a fold, or hens to the roost: so we killed the game that we wanted. ”

“ The highest type of big-game hunting is the finding of fine animals in their haunts, photographing them movably and unmovably, and then bidding them go in peace. To be really and truly ignorant of such distinguished American citizens as the moose and musk-ox, caribou, sheep, goat, antelope, deer and Alaskan brown bear, is reprehensible, and should be punishable by a fine. ”

“ Although despised by the upland sportsman, who regards the use of the dog as essential to the pure exercise of his art; and by the pot-hunter, because they do not generally bring high prices in market;—to the genuine lover of nature and the gun they furnish splendid sport, requiring, if not as high a degree of skill as may be needed to cut down a quail in the dense coverts, at least as many fine qualities in the sportsman, and as thorough a knowledge of their habits as any other bird. ”

“ Certain species and families of our wild birds are classed as game and can, at certain seasons, be legally hunted for sport or for food. A great number of books have been written for sportsmen and by sportsmen, most of them containing but a very few black and white illustrations of some of the species mentioned. ”

“ Far above timber line, in the land where the great snow banks endured through the centuries, these hardy creatures lived and died and had their being: the finest game, the richest trophies, perhaps the most interesting wild animals in all North American fauna. ”

“ The important fly-catcher; the wren, Nature's diligent little housekeeper, that leaves no dusty corner uncleaned; and the pigeons, that have a purely vegetable diet. The woods and thickets are also ranged by jays, cuckoos, owls, hawks, magpies, butcher-birds--Nature's gamekeepers, with a licence to kill, which, after the manner of game-keepers, they exercise somewhat indiscriminately. Above the earth, the air is peopled by swifts and swallows in the daytime, and by goatsuckers at night. ”