AN OLD CHESHIRE WILD-FOWLER 123 



When the tide was full, when we could see shadowy 

 boats steaming down the distant channel seaward, the 

 grey geese came, following the water from their sandbank 

 refuges, now many feet below the tide. Only for a minute 

 did we see the pack, then they settled, hidden in the mist ; 

 one or two skeins broke from the main body, flying inland 

 towards the fields. Fine birds, these pink-footed geese, 

 as with outstretched necks they swing along in regular 

 line with steady, powerful strokes; there is nothing in 

 their wild freedom to suggest the awkward, waddling, 

 overfed birds of the farmyard. They are geese of the 

 wilds, of the mists and driving spume, ever alert, ever 

 free, birds of the mysterious North. 



In the white farm by the cart-track lived the old wild- 

 fowler, the man who knew the birds and where to find 

 them. He could tell when they would come from northern 

 lands, knew when they would return; he knew where 

 they would be met with at any hour of day or night, 

 feeding on the grass, resting on the banks, or swimming 

 on the tide. He was one of the few who, as often as not, 

 could outwit them, taking toll of their numbers by his 

 skill and patience; he was a sportsman of the old school, 

 a man of first-hand knowledge, very critical and often 

 scornful of modern methods. In spite of years he was 

 then past the proverbial human allowance of much 

 exposure to the wildest weather on the darkest, coldest 

 nights, he was still hale and hearty, well able to guide and 

 govern his extensive farm, for he had inland cornfields 

 and pastures, and grazing over miles and miles of the 

 broad marshes. With his sons and five of the smartest 

 dogs in the district he tended a huge army of sheep, 

 gathering them from the furthest confines of the marsh 

 to fold them safe from the rising tide, and sending them 

 back at the ebb to feed on salt- freshened turf. Though 

 by force of circumstances he had deserted the hereditary 



