AT THE ESTUARY 133 



power than we have to-day. A twelve-bore gun, 

 the cartridges loaded with swan-shot, would be use- 

 less. Our dominion over wild life would be loosed, 

 if not lost; for the logic of the bird and beast 

 and insect would be backed by an intelligence of 

 sight, smell, and hearing which far excels our own. 

 Fancy if the wild duck's mind had been sharpened 

 with its eye ! If the bird were as mentally alert 

 to danger as it is physically alert ! How could 

 we hope to match ourselves against it ? The very 

 thought of it to the flighter would be a nightmare 

 of evasion. But the wisdom of the wild animal 

 does not reach in this direction. It is wisdom mainly 

 of one or more of the five senses, developed to a 

 degree marvellous and exquisite. The wild duck 

 is an example. So strong is it in this physical 

 wisdom that we can never approach it when it is 

 dozing by day at the sea edge. No matter how 

 softly we creep near, its head will come from its 

 feather bed, and in an instant it is up and away. 

 Pochard, teal, mallard, widgeon one seems as physi- 

 cally wise as another. Old shore-shooters say curlew 

 are even wiser than duck. At wan dawn I have 

 been within seventy or eighty yards of a roosting 

 party of curlew in the open, but not nearer. The 

 physical wisdom of both the duck and the curlew 

 sometimes appear to fail them once they are a- whig. 

 Curlew become much less wary and suspicious when 

 they are flying in from the shore at dawn or out 



