i6 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



single or double, ten-bores, long-chambered 12-gauge guns, 

 and so forth. 



In short, the true wildfowler is as complete a modern 

 sportsman as can be found anywhere in the world. 



One of the great charms of fowling is its uncertainty, 

 another lies in the fact that when at last infinite patience and en- 

 durance have been rewarded, the smallest bag becomes invested 

 with an importance and gives a thousand times greater plea- 

 sure than any comparatively easily won trophies can ever do. 



"Wildfowler" of The Field, a legitimate descendant of 

 grand old Colonel Hawker, has voiced these sentiments in no 

 uncertain way. In the introduction to his book of twenty-nine 

 years ago — long the standard work on wildfowling — he 

 says : — 



"No branch of shooting has such very ardent votaries as the art 

 of wildfowl shooting, and the reasons for the extraordinary hold which 

 this pursuit invariably obtains on all sportsmen who try it are not very 

 far to seek. Firstly, it is the only sport nowadays wherein success 

 is absolutely uncertain and totally beyond any preconceived arrange- 

 ment ; secondly, you must go into decidedly wild spots, and suboiit 

 to dangers of many kinds, if you wish to find the birds ; and, thirdly, 

 there are so many ways of carrying on the pursuit that one never 

 wearies of them all. Thus shooting, when it has wildfowl for its 

 object, combines all the elements which tend to make of it a strictly 

 enticing sport, since the uncertainty is so great as to keep hope always 

 burning within one's breast, and since every branch of the calling has 

 to be carried on in quite a distinct manner and in totally different 

 spots, and is generally accompanied by a degree of peril which renders 

 the pursuit perfectly fascinating. The all-round wildfowl shooter, to 

 be a successful man, must therefore be of a buoyant nature, and not 

 easily put out ; he must be doggedly determined, at all costs, to 

 carry out his plans ; he must also be hardy in his constitution ; he 

 must be a good oarsman, an excellent sailor, a good shot, and a 

 ' knowing ' sportsman, full of wrinkles and expedients ; and he must 

 enjoy that average amount of pluck which is a sine qua non in his 

 pursuit. 



"To the well-to-do educated man, the sport is of the most charm- 



