ce with France, is not the
least extraordinary upon record. On that occasion, there were killed 160
deer, 100 wild boars, 300 hares, and 80 foxes: this was the achievement
of one day. Enormous, however, as this slaughter may appear, it is
greatly inferior to that made by the contemporary king of Naples on a
hunting expedition. That sovereign had a larger extent of ground at his
command, and a longer period for the exercise of his talents;
consequently, his sport, if it can so be called, was proportionably
greater. It was pursued during his journey to Vienna, in Austria,
Bohemia, and Moravia; when he killed 5 bears, 1,820 boars, 1,950 deer,
1,145 does, 1,625 roebucks, 11,121 rabbits, 13 wolves, 17 badgers,
16,354 hares, and 354 foxes. In birds, during the same expedition, he
killed 15,350 pheasants and 12,335 partridges. Such an amount of
destruction can hardly be called sport; it resembles more the
indiscriminate slaughter of a battle-field, where the scientific engines
of civilized warfare are brought to bear upon defenceless savages.

1014. DEER AND HARES may be esteemed as the only four-footed animals now
hunted in Britain for the table; and even those are not followed with
the same ardour as they were wont to be. Still, there is no country in
the world where the sport of hunting on horseback is carried to such an
extent as in Great Britain, and where the pleasures of the chase are so
well understood, and conducted on such purely scientific principles. The
Fox, of all "the beasts of the field," is now considered to afford the
best sport. For this, it is infinitely superior to the stag; for the
real sportsman can only enjoy that chase when the deer is sought for and
found like other game which are pursued with hounds. In the case of
finding an outlying fallow-deer, which is unharboured, in this manner,
great sport is frequently obtained; but this is now rarely to be met
with in Britain. In reference to hare-hunting, it is much followed in
many parts of this and the sister island; but, by the true foxhunter, it
is considered as a sport only fit to be pursued by women and old men.
Although it is less dangerous and exciting than the fox-chase, however,
it has great charms for those who do not care for the hard riding which
the other requires.

1015. THE ART OF TAKING OR KILLING BIRDS is called "fowling," and is
either practised as an amusement by persons of rank or property, or for
a livelihood by persons who use nets