222 SHOOTING THE DUCK AND THE GOOSE 



at the beginning and middle of last century. Refer- 

 ence therein is constantly made to the dearth of fowl 

 in the Solent and Poole Harbour, and the striking 

 contrasts in the bags which the Colonel obtained 

 from 1820 onwards bear eloquent testimony to the 

 vicissitudes of the fowler's lot in those days. Inter- 

 spersed among entries relating to his more notable 

 successes one finds such statements as these : ' In 

 1838-39,' he says, ' the scarcity of fowl was lament- 

 able, a general failure of all sport on the coast ; whilst 

 the geese appear to have been banished therefrom 

 altogether.' Then again, in 1846, he writes : ' Such 

 an unprecedented scarcity of wild -fowl at Keyhaven 

 on the coast that I could not disgrace myself by 

 putting a great gun afloat. A general complaint all 

 over England that there were no wild-fowl, wood- 

 cock, snipe, and other winter birds this season.' 



Coming to more recent times, we find that things 

 have not changed much either for the better or worse. 

 Amidst a long series of disappointing seasons there 

 have nevertheless been a few glorious exceptions, 

 when fowlers have achieved some gratifying results. 

 In the severe frost of 1 880-81, 1890-91, and again 

 in 1892-93, thousands of geese, widgeon, and ducks 

 were killed in these islands ; whilst in January and 

 February of 1895 the firths of North Britain and 



