WILD FOWLING 



Scoters, Scaup, Brent geese, the three large Sea divers and all 

 kinds of shore birds, such as Godwits and Curlew and a medley 

 of smaller Waders as well. 



' You should lie in wait on that part of the shore along 

 which the wind blows : for as the birds fly about, which they 

 will continually do in boisterous weather, they are certain to 

 head the wind, and from your position they are then likely to 

 pass across you within shot. If you are posted with the wind 

 blowing directly from the land to the sea, you will not make a 

 bag, for no Ducks or shore birds will come within range except 

 those that intend to fly inland, which will naturally not be 

 many in the day time. 



' If the wind blows towards the land the only birds that will 

 offer you shots are those which head the wind as they fly from 

 the land to the sea ; and these will be very few you may be 

 sure. But if you can dig a hole, deep enough to hide you up 

 to the shoulders, on some part of the shore near low-water 

 mark (or are able to conceal yourself behind a natural or 

 roughly made shelter), and it is a stormy day, with the wind 

 blowing, as I have explained, you will certainly obtain shots 

 and plenty of them, if, of course, fowl are in the vicinity. 



' Your best chance of sport is when there is a gale at sea, 

 and a hard frost : for the Ducks, Geese, and shore birds will 

 then be constantly on wing in search of food, which is not 

 in severe weather, either by day or night, so accessible to them 

 as usual. 



' A good position to ensconce yourself in is the extremity 

 of a promontory that runs some little distance from the shore : 

 for wild fowl of all kinds seem to make a landmark of a pro- 

 jecting point of rock or sand, and will fly over the end of it in 

 their passages from one part of an estuary to another. 



' Of all favourable places for this style of shooting, none 

 equals the last piece of ooze-bank that is daily covered by the 

 flowing tide, for it is there both Ducks and Waders will betake 

 themselves when their other feeding and resting places are 

 submerged. 



Q 121 



