WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. l8l 



CHAPTER III. 



WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 



THERE is a certain property and chattel 

 interest in partridge and in pheasants, which 

 tends to deprive the sport of shooting them 

 of the relish that comes of bagging their 

 wilder relatives. The true savage instincts of 

 our nature are not sufficiently exercised in the 

 pursuit of birds, whose habits are almost as 

 familiar as those of domesticated poultry. 

 The man, however, who has a taste for 

 genuine wild-fowl shooting, and who pos- 

 sesses the courage of his ideas, at once 

 abandons himself to solitude and hardships. 

 It is necessary for his due enjoyment and 

 appreciation of the work to which he is 

 devoted that he should be alone and un- 

 assisted. Let him cast about for the quarters 

 which he intends to beat, and, having fixed on 

 them, he must organize a plan of campaign 

 regulated by the presumed or traditionary pos- 

 sibilities of the district. A fen into whose 

 first trench the salt water oozes from a long 



