292 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



are when on the wing, with breasts like satin : 

 breast, by the way, is a fowler's word ; to be cor- 

 rect one should rather say under -plumage. These 

 birds are extraordinarily cunning. The young ones 

 of course often fall easy victims on their first 

 journey ; but a drake widgeon, one that has escaped 

 for several seasons from punt - guns, shore - guns, 

 and decoys, knows something. It is these learned 

 birds that we - oh so much ; they look after the 

 safety of the others as much as they can, and after 

 their own safety particularly. 



If any one of those who have written about the 

 cruelty of sport were turned out with a company 

 of widgeon - shooters for the night, without too 

 much inside their stomachs, to wait in a hole 

 dug in the slub, or at the very best in an old tub 

 lined with straw, for the fowl, he would fancy 

 the cruelty lay on the other side. Indeed before 

 morning he might have come to consider himself 

 a very ill-used individual ; having to grope on the 

 ooze for fowl in mud-pattens is not cheerful work, 

 even if you have brought three or four down. 

 Shore - shooting is the hardest sport existing, so 

 far . as the bag is concerned ; it is a game of 



