250 BIRD-LIFE OF 'rill-: BORDERS 



Moor-partridges, moreover, never get really wild, since 

 there is at all seasons plenty of rough covert. It is the 

 lack of this, in an era of shaving reapers and close-cut 

 hedgerows, that makes partridge wilder. On the moors, 

 when the covies are broken, they will lie to dogs through- 

 out the season. 



On moors that are too irregular in shape, or too narrow, 

 to admit of driving ; but which may yet be too level to 

 afford any access to wild birds, the above method offers 

 a means of killing a few brace, where hardly a bird would 

 otherwise reward the utmost labour. Driving, moreover, 

 presupposes several guns, and yet more drivers. By the 

 method described, a single gunner may not only enjoy 

 a novel sport, but will be delighted with the constant and 

 favourable opportunities it affords for the observation of 

 wild birds. 



None of the true wildfowl- — by which I mean ducks 

 and geese- — can be outwitted thus. It is true that, on 

 moorland, they present little or no opportunity to test 

 this opinion. But it is foreign to their natures to permit 

 the proximity of humankind, consciously, whether with 

 a cart or otherwise. No carts exist where wildfowl 

 live. The basis of the Spanish style of fowling, with 

 cafoesto-ponies, is essentially different, for there, wild-bred 

 ponies do live in the marsh-lands, in the midst of the 

 wildfowl. 



The curlew, however, though one of the wariest and 

 most watchful of birds, appeared quite likely to fall 

 a victim to misplaced sagacity. There are no curlews 

 on the moors in autumn, so the experiment had to be 

 made on the coast. There, on wide sandflats, where 

 they feed, and where they are accustomed to seeing 

 carts passing, we found it quite possible to approach 



