MORE ABOUT FOWLING ON LONGSHORE. 301 



shot on the tide as a rule), curlews, jack-curlews, 

 whimbrel (in the season), godwits (rarely), grey 

 plover and golden plover, peewits, green plovers, 

 woodcocks, snipes, jack-snipes, redshanks, dot- 

 terels (occasionally), sanderlings, dunlins, and stints. 

 Other birds were fit to eat, but the list I have 

 given comprised nearly all that were sold at the 

 time I used to go with shooters. 



If a man fancies he knows too much, or if he 

 feels unduly elated over what little he does know, 

 let him find some lonely shore (there are some 

 such still), and there let him join a company of 

 poor but honest shore-shooters. In less than a 

 fortnight his fancies will leave him. Some of the 

 truest and noblest hearts I have ever known beat 

 under a fisher's and fowler's blue jersey. 



Sport it was certainly, the best that a man could 

 have ; but in many cases it was necessary sport. 

 There the birds were, if you could get them ; 

 straight shooting meant putting money into empty 

 pockets. Very few that had the means to do so 

 could resist buying a tempting bunch of fowl fresh 

 from the tide. In the first place, they are very 

 beautiful, their plumage is so bright and pure ; more 



