Have you ever seen it stated in any sporting work that game has become wilder in this country?
I wish I could get any sort of proof of the fact, for your explanation seems to me equally ingenious and probable.

I have myself witnessed in South America a nearly parallel [case] with that which you mention in regard to the reindeer in Spitzbergen, with the Cervus campestris of La Plata.

It feared neither man nor the sound of shot of a rifle, but was terrified at the sight of a man on horseback; every one in that country always riding.

As you are so great a sportsman, perhaps you will kindly look to one very trifling point for me, as my neighbours here think it too absurd to notice--namely, whether the feet of birds are dirty, whether a few grains of dirt do not adhere occasionally to their feet.

I especially want to know how this is in the case of birds like herons and waders, which stalk in the mud.