HUNTING WITH FOOT-HARRIERS 255 



is pounded ; and he can penetrate into aU sorts of 

 odd corners and perplexing places where his mounted 

 fellow cannot possibly make his way. In fact, much 

 more frequently than not he can be almost always with 

 hounds, watching each phase of the hare's flight and of 

 the marvellous patience, instinct, perseverance, scenting, 

 and stoutness with which the good harrier unravels 

 yard by yard, mile by mile, that cunning puzzle 

 which the little brown beast ahead has set before the 

 pack. 



During the chase of a hare over wild moorland 

 country or broad unfrequented marshes, or through 

 big woodlands, you may often come suddenly upon 

 some interesting feature in natural history. While 

 hare-hunting in Sussex I have seen peregrine falcons 

 and hen-harriers pursuing their predatory career while 

 one was actually hunting ; hoodie crows, with their 

 quaint and rather murderous ways, are constant 

 winter residents upon our marshes ; they come to 

 us punctually in October and depart at the beginning 

 of spring, just as we are abandoning hare-hunting for 

 the season. Mallards, wigeon, teal, and, in hard 

 weather, wild geese and other rarer wild fowl are 

 visitors to our marshes. The stately heron is always 

 in evidence. Snipe constantly spring up before one 

 as the chase sweeps on. The wide coast marshes have 

 in truth at times many rare and singular visitants. 

 I have seen occasionally, disturbed by the chase, red- 

 shanks, greenshanks, dunlin, whimbrel, and other 

 wading birds. This very winter we had on Pevensey 

 marshes a small flight or two of Glossy Ibises, strangely 

 infrequent wanderers from the rivers and lagoons of 

 far-off Africa. They had lit there, no doubt, on their 

 way south, and, as usually happens, some of their 

 numbers fell victims to the gunner and the collector. 



