SMALL GAME 109 



beyond all these the absence of the 

 enthusiasm without which the fowler is 

 nothing worth. Fowling demands pluck, 

 endurance, patience and the keenest relish 

 for the sport at all times, in all conditions 

 of wind and weather, and that classical 

 aequa mens in rebus arduis, which is in- 

 dispensable. 



As far as is known few attempts, other 

 than in the Yangtze estuary, have been 

 made to systematically circumvent wild- 

 fowl, and what I write must be limited 

 accordingly to that locality. Just outside 

 Shanghai is a line of islands stretching 

 towards the sea, Tsung-Ming, the largest 

 of them all and nearest, then in succession 

 Bush Island, Small Island, Block House 

 Island and House Island ; in fact twenty 

 miles of low land, shoals, swamps and reeds. 

 These islands are intersected by innumer- 

 able small tidal creeks. Opposite to these, 

 on the right bank of the river, are the well 

 known Beacon Flats, a long expanse of 

 mud at low water. On these shoals and in 

 the contiguous swampy reed beds fowl of 

 every description delight to congregate. 



When the birds arrive in quantity, a fact 

 intimated by the "flying squadrons" outside 



