ON FOWLERS AND WILD-FOWLING. 177 



pleasures of out-of-doors. Let me take down the 

 books that come nearest to my hand. 



The author of * Bird-Life of the Borders,' Abel 

 Chapman, whose book ought to be in the hands of 

 every lover of bird-life, has left nothing to be desired 

 by the most captious critic in that work. He states 

 in his Preface that the illustrations, rough pen-and- 

 ink sketches by the author, reproduced by photo- 

 zincography, have no pretensions to scientific ac- 

 curacy. They are, however, all excellent. His fine 

 sketch of grey geese on the sand-bar> full sea 

 spring-tides is the best representation of geese I 

 have ever seen. From the Borders we may pass 

 to Scotland's fowlers ; and who that has read 

 " Christopher in his Sporting Jacket," in the * Rec- 

 reations of Christopher North,' but would give him 

 credit for being an inveterate fowler ? In * Chris- 

 topher in his Aviary,' we all see that he was a 

 most observant naturalist. These volumes, too, are 

 full of healthy vigorous life. Then we have John 

 Colquhoun, most accomplished of fowlers, as his 

 work, 'The Moor and the Loch,' proves. Mr 

 Charles St John also devoted himself to the wild 

 sports of Scotland. He, too, was a keen wild- 



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