

PREFACE 



MY childhood and youth were spent on the fore- 

 shores and in the marsh-lands of North Kent, where 

 I associated freely with the shore-shooters and the 

 fishing-folk as one of themselves. At the same 

 time some of the best standard works of that day 

 were open to me through connections of my own. 



The sketches of character given are from the 

 life. There was a quaintness and an originality 

 about our marsh-land folks that I have never met 

 with elsewhere. 



Although I no longer handle a gun having 

 exchanged it for a field-glass I have never been 

 out of touch with the old friends of my youth, and 

 specimens of the birds have been sent to me fresh 

 from the tide, and have lain before me as I wrote 

 these chapters on wild-fowl and sea-fowl. 



A SON OF THE MARSHES. 



