THE DUCK 307 



as to the degree of artificiality that he is 

 prepared to countenance in a sport in 

 many respects so essentially artificial as 

 covert-shooting. The question is this, 

 and the reader must supply the answer, 

 for the writer's opinion is so prejudiced 

 by a natural affection for all wild things, 

 that it is worthless in such a case : — 



Am I content to take the place I am 

 given and shoot a nice succession of most 

 sporting duck without any misgiving as 

 to whence they came? Does it in 

 no way spoil my pleasure to have a 

 suspicion, amounting to a fair certainty, 

 that somewhere out of sight over the 

 horizon the keeper is turning these ducks 

 out of pen or hamper not two minutes 

 before they come over my head ; that the 

 nice distribution, each gun getting a fair 

 share of the shooting and none more than 

 he can deal with, is due, it is true, to 

 careful handling of the birds, but hardly 

 in the figurative sense commonly used 

 about game ? If the reader can cheerfully 

 say ' yes ' to these questions, he may have 



