Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/336

312 ounce of practice is worth a pound of precept. Valour our author holds to consist of two parts, pluck and nerve, and the difference between them he illustrates with an anecdote, which we venture to repeat, at the risk of being deemed retailers of that class of story known as " fine old crusted."

The Colonel, as we are told, had lots of "pluck," but, as he was honest enough to admit, a deficiency of "nerve."

Some critical notes on Irish hunters and thoroughbreds are followed by two chapters devoted respectively to riding to fox- hounds and riding at stag-hounds. But let not the reader think that it is in any jeering spirit the distinction is drawn. The latter is no less sport than the former, as Major Whyte-Melville has proved in his own experience, though to be sure he has sought it rather in pursuit of the perfectly wild animal over the moorlands of Somerset and North Devon than racing "the calf" in company with Her Majesty's Staghounds and a London crowd. How hard the work can be may be gathered from the sentence quoted from Lord Wolverton — "The worst of a deer is that you can't leave off when you like. Nobody will believe you if you swear it went to ground!"

We cannot conclude this notice without mention of the illustra- tions. The process of printing we believe to be that known as "autotype," but in this instance it can scarcely be called a success. There is a somewhat blurred and greasy appearance about the plates, which we feel to be unfortunate for much of Mr. Giberne's drawing. We say "much" advisedly, as we do not consider Mr. Giberne to be at all equal in his productions. The fall at the brook (p. 32), and the "flyer" (p. 242), are well and spiritedly drawn, but the enquiring-looking animal in "thrown out" (p. 193) we confess reminds us rather of the rocking-horse type, than of even the mildest horse to be found amongst the crowd at a suburban meet.