CHAPTER XVIII 



Among the Wild Fowl 



T N these chapters, which recall the picturesque 

 * reminiscences of the Nestor of Scottish sportsmen, 

 our humble experiences are interspersed with his own. 

 But to some of the more irregular sports in which 

 he specially delights we were never addicted. There 

 is wild-fowl shooting, for example. It must become 

 an absorbing passion with a man if he means to 

 follow it perseveringly with pleasure and success. 

 The keenest enthusiast on record is Colonel Hawker, 

 whose ponderous volumes are chiefly devoted to that 

 pursuit. The colonel was something of a valetudin- 

 arian, something of an epicure, and he was suffering 

 besides from old wounds received in Wellington's 

 campaigns. Yet no weather deterred him, no hard- 

 ship daunted him, and he bivouacked in bitter winter 

 on the beach of Pool Harbour in a cottage with the 

 accommodations of a squatter's log hut. As the wild- 

 fowler is bound to suffer himself, he cannot be ex- 

 pected to be over sensitive as to the sufferings of 

 his victims. Yet surely, over the claret or cigar, 



he must have his moments of remorse, when he 



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