288 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



gun; in fact, one who would draw on the range 

 of another would not be allowed to do it a second 

 time. The unwritten laws of the foreshores are 

 not to be lightly broken by any one. 



All birds are endowed with great intelligence. 

 It is not all who are able to make friends with 

 them or with animals ; but those who can do this 

 are more than astonished at what they are able to 

 teach. Any wild animal or bird will at times 

 outwit a dozen men or boys; and so far as the 

 latter are concerned, it is saying much for the 

 creature's astuteness, for boys have the hunting 

 instincts all over them, from the crown of their 

 head to their feet, if they be true boys and healthy 

 ones. A man may have all the birds that money 

 can get for him in the finest aviaries ; he may 

 have the most costly works on the subject, from 

 Audubon and Gould down to Lilford, and yet 

 he may know nothing about the real life of the 

 creatures ; for that knowledge can only be got out 

 of doors in their haunts, and to get it is the work 

 of a lifetime. Yet all these works are of course 

 excellent and good in their way, though I learned 

 more on a dreary wind-swept beach in my early 



