124 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



passion for wild-fowling and become sheep-farmer, his 

 heart was still in the old days; he loved to boast of his 

 big shots, his adventures amongst the birds. By right 

 of knowledge he made the marshes his, later they became 

 his by legal tenure; his Scottish flocks grazed where he 

 formerly punted. 



How can we describe the man ? He was no miserable 

 shore shooter who tramped along the tide line, fearful of 

 losing his way on the wastes, snapping his i2-bore at any 

 passing gull, balked by the first deep gutter. No; in his 

 younger days he was a true wild-fowler, who loved the roar 

 of the punt-gun that hurled a pound and a half of lead 

 into the packed grey geese or barnacles, laying low ten, 

 fifteen, or twenty at a shot. Once, he told us, thirty-five 

 were gathered a famous number, he reckoned. When 

 the grey dawn came for he often shot at night he would 

 visit the spot where he fired to gather the slain and 

 cripples; he knew where he had been in the darkness; the 

 wastes were mapped in his brain. What need for day- 

 light when he could find his way in the " wild roads " 

 or amongst the " lums " and " gorings "? He was 

 acquainted with every channel, every intricate gutter and 

 current; the banks and flats were as easy to him as the 

 streets and houses to the town dweller. Why, he said, 

 should he waste time with the " cripple-killer," or tramp 

 the dangerous mud at night to pick up fallen birds, when 

 he might get another shot at fowl elsewhere on the marsh ? 



Somewhat bent, more perhaps through much crouching 

 in the old punt than the result of years, the old fowler 

 was a fine, broad-shouldered, well-built man. There was 

 penetrating keenness in his eyes, which twinkled with 

 humour beneath heavy eyebrows, though, like all men of 

 crepuscular habits, he had a half-frown. This was not 

 the frown of ill-humour, but a set expression of determina- 

 tion, indicative of the strong character of the owner. A 



