SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



The following records enable comparison to 

 be made between the bags made in the whole 

 season with the muzzle-loader and those made in 

 recent times: 



At Highnam, seasons 1858-9, were killed 192 phea- 

 sants, 323 hares, and 1,767 rabbits ; season 1863-4, 

 307 pheasants, 672 hares, and 3,814 rabbits. 



At Highnam, in 1881, 1,588 head were killed. 



At Sherborne Park, in 1873, the bag for tbe season 

 was : 577 pheasants, 302 partridges, and 587 hares ; 

 in 1883, 351 pheasants, 421 partridges, 386 hares, 



and 1,126 rabbits; in 1904, 1,756 pheasants, 

 1,1 1 6 partridges, 961 hares, and 3,008 rabbits. 



At Cowley Manor, in 1904, the season's bag of phea- 

 sants was 1,700, 1,138 being the largest day's bag. 



At Hartpury, on II December, 1903, 3 guns killed 

 214 pheasants, I hare, 703 rabbits, and 4 various ; 

 total, 922. 



On 1 6 November, 1904, 3 guns killed 327 pheasants, 

 36 hares, 15 rabbits, 358 wild fowl, and 3 various ; 

 total, 739 ; on 15 December, 1904, 3 guns killed 

 182 pheasants, 7 hares, 419 rabbits, 191 wild fowl, 

 and 2 various ; total, So I. 



WILD-FOWLING 



In treating of the wild fowl of this county only 

 those species are noticed which come in such 

 numbers as individually to attract the attention 

 of the sportsman, and to form an asset of a 

 certain importance for the table. Such occa- 

 sional visitors to Gloucestershire as the Brent 

 Goose (Bernicla brenta), the Golden-eye (Clan- 

 gula glaucion\ the Grey Plover (Squatarola 

 helvetica), and the Bar-tailed Godwit (Limota 

 lapponlca) are of interest rather to ornithologists 

 than to sportsmen. 



The wild-fowling districts of the county fall 

 under two categories, the permanent and the 

 temporary. The former consist of the wider 

 part of the Severn estuary for twenty-five 

 miles from Avonmouth to Fretherne, and of a 

 narrow transitional part running for another ten 

 or twelve miles to Longney. Above Longney 

 the ebb and flow of the tide are not such as to 

 leave mud-banks or sands on which the wild 

 fowl can feed and rest. Nor is any part of the 

 water sufficiently far from land to offer the birds 

 security from man. Off Avonmouth, on the 

 other hand, the estuary is some 5^- miles wide, 

 and just below Fretherne over a mile wide. 



The temporary districts for wild-fowling arc 

 certain low-lying meadow lands along the Severn 

 which become flooded. To these are attracted 

 many wild fowl, especially if such situations afford 

 ' splashes ' ' splash ' being a local name for 

 a shallow depression that retains the water 

 after the main floods have subsided. These dis- 

 tricts reach chiefly from Longney up to Tewkes- 

 bury, that is to say, along the narrower part of 

 the river. The wild-fowling over them is neces- 

 sarily carried on at uncertain times, and in a 

 more or less casual and unscientific manner, 

 chiefly by flight-shooting with a 12-bore gun. 

 The uncertainty affects the birds as well as the 

 wild-fowler, since the former scarcely have time 

 to settle down in any regular haunts. More- 

 over, amid large tracts of water, covering in all 

 perhaps seventy square miles, spots frequented 

 by wild fowl, except those of the ' splashes ' that 

 follow on, are difficult to find. The big thorn 

 hedges likewise check boating except in some ten 

 or twelve situations where there is a tract of 

 commonable land, or a grazing common termed 



a 'ham,' or where dykes or 'reens'take the 

 place of hedges. Wild geese and ducks, how- 

 ever, do frequent the flooded grounds in consider- 

 able numbers, and as the water subsides quantities 

 of dunlins, snipe, and peewits feed over the 

 sodden turf. One sportsman, at any rate, has 

 made a systematic attempt to grapple with the 

 geese and ducks. A chain-secured hut stands in 

 the middle of the flood, and thither the shooter 

 betakes himself with a 4-bore at flight time. 

 The situation is towards the north of the Vale 

 of Gloucester, and from the evidence collected 

 it appears as though the majority of the ducks 

 come from the north-east, and not from the 

 Severn in the south-west. Their numbers vary 

 according to the exact time of year of the floods 

 and the prevailing wind of the evening. A 

 strong south-west wind, for instance, consider- 

 ably reduces their numbers. As often as not a 

 good bag, chiefly of mallards, is obtained. During 

 the day a good bag is made at times by working 

 the floods with a boat or two. In the latter 

 case, one boat is used to disturb the ducks, whilst 

 the wild-fowler shoots from the other. If only 

 one boat is used, and the ducks are fairly restful, 

 they can be approached sufficiently close, say 

 within 200 to 150 yards or less, to enable good 

 results to be obtained with a 4-bore. Geese are 

 seldom killed by either of these methods, and a 

 bag consists chiefly of mallards, wigeon and teal, 

 and occasional specimens of other ducks. 



Returning now to the permanent districts, 

 it is in these that the wild-fowler is at home. 

 There the birds acquire habits, habits that change 

 with a frost, the wind, the degree of moonlight, 

 fog, the time of year, the tides, and with the 

 amount of disturbance to which they are sub- 

 jected. Still they are habits, and the man who 

 correctly gauges the changes is the successful 

 wild-fowler. These permanent districts have all 

 much the same physical features, which vary in 

 degree rather than in kind. When the tide is 

 in there are no marshy tracts nor oozy shores 

 bearing mixed vegetation, but the water reaches 

 up to a bank which may be divided from fields 

 by a foreshore, or by dry and scanty turf. Owing 

 to the vagaries of the river a broad grass-covered 

 foreshore capable of feeding herds of cattle may 



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