BIRD NOTES 169 



the rond, immediately followed by another, and was 

 still more astonished to see a second bird lying dead. 

 It had, unknown to me, crossed the other in its flight 

 at the identical moment of firing. 



An old friend used to be very partial to moon- 

 light strolls along Breydon walls in the days when 

 there were neither gun licences nor close seasons. 

 One evening he saw the shadow of a Greenshank, 

 and fired at where he thought the bird might be. 

 To his surprise he heard a double fall, " flop flop" 

 as he expressed it on the mud, and found that 

 his shot had completely halved the bird ! 



The zest with which many sportsmen recount the 

 adventures and circumstances attending the slaughter 

 of rare birds, and the remarkable results of their 

 shots, certainly, to me, savours somewhat of the 

 callous, and does not speak much for the value they 

 place upon the lives of the lower animals, which, I am 

 bound to admit, after having been somewhat of a 

 sportsman myself, have quite as much right to live, 

 and be happy, as I have. I must confess to having 

 feelings of repugnance when I hear men talk of the 

 ways ay ! even laugh at the antics and efforts 

 of stricken and maimed birds to regain their feet 

 and freedom. To hear of " lanes " being cut through 



