viii INTRODUCTION. 



uninitiated, as much as I love the birds themselves, do I 

 pretend this volume to be any rival to Colonel Hawker's 

 immortal "Hints to Young Sportsmen," Daniel's com- 

 prehensive "Rural Sports," Folkard's " Wildfowler," Sir 

 Ralph Payne-Gallwey's chatty reminiscences of Irish sport, 

 or any of some hundred volumes which authors reputable 

 with gun and pen have given to the world. For such 

 treatises I have neither time nor inclination. Personally, 

 it is my opinion that not very much real learning for our 

 guidance in the field is to be picked up in the hard and fast 

 instruction of type. 



A single season's successes and disappointments in the 

 open, with a trusty weapon and a faithful dog at heel, will 

 teach more about sport and wild birds than a year's 

 rummaging in the home library and patient perusal of authors 

 who never know an empty day or draw a cover blank. What 

 judicious books can do is to foster a love for those outdoor 

 exercises which in turn foster that spirit of resolution and 

 patience, and strength of wind and limb, which is one of the 

 happiest distinctions of Englishmen. 



Who is there that has not read St. John's wonderful 

 descriptions of wild fowl clamouring at night in the shallows 

 of Scotch salt-water lochs without ardently desiring himself 

 to hear those motley multitudes feeding in with the tide, 

 and to learn to distinguish their infinitely varied voices 

 a language in itself ! Or, who is there who has not burned 

 to stalk a " muckle hart " in highland fastnesses after a dip 

 into the seductive pages of Scrope or William Black ? 



At best, however, our sporting authors can only teach us 



