WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 185 



on your shoulder, so as to swing it free of 

 your working arm, you catch a glimpse of a 

 strangely-shaped cloud over the hill on the edge 

 of the fen. Experience saves you from specu- 

 lating on it in the shifty manner of Polonius. 

 There is no doubt that the cloud is nothing 

 more nor less than army of golden plover. 

 This army has a sort of Uhlan detachment, 

 whose business it is to reconnoitre, and so 

 the sooner an ambush is sought by you 

 the better. If you are an expert, you hide 

 in the first clump of rushes you can find, 

 pucker your lips together, and whistle a 

 querulous high call. If this is answered, con- 

 tinue to whistle, and, when the responses grow 

 louder and louder, you must be ingenious and 

 strong-winded enough to increase the emphasis 

 of your performance proportionately. The 

 Uhlan plover division does not number usually 

 more than six or eight birds, while the main 

 army may be counted in thousands. It is 

 not often, indeed, that the wild-fowl shooter 

 gets an opening into the vast squadron, the win- 

 nowing of whose wings resembles the rush 'of 

 a small cataract. The slightest premature move 



