Birds as Food 



forests, which formerly had been sheep 

 ground but had been given up to deer when 

 "stalking" was at its height, now reverted 

 to their original state. Great Britain at war 

 commended itself as a background to an 

 American short-story writer, who wrote in 

 1916: "A GOLDEN PHEASANT came calmly 

 by, for this year the twelfth of August signi- 

 fied a far different shooting and the coverts 

 were undisturbed " (Globe, 4.viii . 16). 



It was only to be expected that WILD- 

 FOWLING by professional puntsmen and 

 others should have been much out of favour 

 with the naval authorities on the east coast, 

 and restrictions, almost prohibitive in their 

 severity, were issued under the Defence of 

 the Realm Regulations (Daily Mail, io.ix.i6); 

 As a result, WATERFOWL became much tamer ; 

 but although they seemed to realise that 

 aeroplanes, patrol boats, gunfire, etc., were 

 harmless to them, they still seemed to recog- 

 nise a gunning punt as hostile (Field, 30 .iii .18, 

 p. 447). Another effect of the Admiralty's 

 restrictions was observed off East Lothian, 

 where some islands, on which for many years 



47 



