MORE ABOUT FOWLING ON LONGSHORE. 289 



years, and far more in after-life in the woods and 

 on the hills of our southern counties, than ever 

 books could tell me, though I have had access 

 to some of the best. 



Keen-witted creatures the fowl are when alive, 

 and wonderful travellers ; and the command to 

 increase and multiply has been carried out to 

 perfection, as the shores of the whole known world 

 prove. Man himself, with all his arts and modern 

 weapons, is very often left with empty pockets when 

 he goes out after fowl ; the best fowlers on the tide 

 will come home at times without even a little jack- 

 snipe, as the keenest angler will come home now 

 and again without a gudgeon. Fowlers in my shoot- 

 ing-days were men who worked at their trade as long 

 as there was work to do, or as long as the weather 

 allowed them to do it. There has been a great rev- 

 olution in business matters since that time, and 

 very fortunate it is for all. Things were rough at 

 times and wages low ; when our men shot it was in 

 order to sell the fowl. It would take three or four 

 ducks to provide a meal for even a small family, 

 they are small birds when picked; and as to curlews, 

 well, any healthy person, man or woman, could eat 



T 



