34 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



" Hallo, young fellow, you seem unusually flush 

 of money; that is a bit unusual, is it not ? " 



" Well," I answered with a certain amount of 

 youthful pride, " I won eighty pounds the other day 

 pigeon shooting, and I expect to make some more 

 by and by." x 



This was true, as I had captured two sweepstakes 

 at Cambridge, killing fifteen birds in succession at 

 the second of these. 



" Now look here, Johnny," said my irate parent, 

 " I will give you anything you like in reason for the 

 sake of sport or your Natural History, but I draw 

 the line at pigeon shooting. It is not a clean game, 

 and I won't have you mixed up with that crowd; 

 so give me your promise you will not shoot pigeons 

 again." 



I did so, feeling somewhat resentful, but it did 

 not take long for me to find out the wisdom of 

 the old man's advice, and I have never fired at a 

 tame pigeon since. 



I used to spend much time shooting and fishing 

 in those days from June till March, and usually 

 began the shooting season on August 1st on the 

 mud-flats and reed-beds of the Tay between Kin- 

 fauns, Errol, Inchture and Mugdrum Island. By 

 starting from Perth at midnight one could reach 

 the reed-beds at Errol before other gunners were 

 out, and I have killed as many as forty duck in one 

 day in this public place. The ground is dangerous and 

 requires local knowledge, which I possessed, and a 

 first-class retriever is essential, as the fallen birds 

 usually drop in thick places. On one occasion 



1 Archibald Stuart-Wortley had invited me to come to 

 Hurlingham to compete against some of the great shots. 



