148 1ktn0s of tbe 1Rot> t IRtfle, au& (Bun 



demands. I am not underrating the skill and patience 

 and cunning displayed by the punt-shooter I admire 

 and appreciate those qualities, and admit that the 

 successful punt-shooter possesses them in a remarkable 

 degree ; but I ask any man who has ever stalked, say, 

 curlews, whether the craft and wariness and patience 

 required are not as great as the punt-shooter exhibits. 

 To my thinking, the man who can fairly stalk and 

 bag half a dozen curlews in a day has performed a 

 greater feat of sportsmanship than the man who has 

 killed fifty wigeon from a punt or a hundred driven 

 grouse from behind a butt. 



Colonel Hawker's grand total of game shot in fifty- 

 one seasons was as follows : 



7,035 partridges. 



575 pheasants. 



4,488 wild fowl, swans, ducks, and geese. 

 1,821 riverside and seashore birds. 



68 woodcocks. 

 2,116 snipe. 



35 1 plover, grey, green, and golden. 



181 various. 



17,753 



But he tells us that many hundreds of shore birds 

 and wild-fowl were unrecorded. 



It must be remembered that Colonel Hawker was 

 limited in the extent of ground he had to shoot over, 

 and, suffering constantly from ill-health, was severely 

 handicapped. It was his boast that he never knew 

 an absolutely blank day ; but in some seasons birds 

 were so wild and scarce that a single shot was all he 

 obtained in a day. And as for wild-fowl, there were 



