84 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



form, the dainty godwits who dabble in the brackish pools 

 or flit lightly down the nullahs, not to mention the curlew 

 and his kind, or the plovers who wheel and scream in the- 

 yellow of early dawn overhead. But these birds are for the 

 most part unpopular, so they get but short shift. 



I think, however, with the man who loves snipe and 

 sedges, that there is good and healthful sport to be had 



"... by the drear banks of Uffins 

 Where the flights of marsh fowl play ; " 



and in union with him, as well as from early association, the 

 wild birds of the river-side will always be appreciated by me,. 



WINTER ON THE MUD FLATS. 



To make a successful marsh shooter, capable of enjoying 

 the lonely w r astes, even though we indulge in this fascinating 

 sport with the best regard to health and comfort, demands- 

 good health and a certain amount of hardiness, tempered 

 by judicious caution. The way in Avhich the most pleasure 

 can be obtained, with the minimum of discomfort, is un- 

 questionably by shooting from a boat, especially in the 

 season of frost and snow, when it is no mean consideration 

 to have a dry shelter to retreat to always at hand. Tha 

 boat-shooter thus may find himself quartered over night at 

 some comfortable water-side inn near a favourite haunt of 

 the cold weather birds. 



His next discovery is that "five-o'clock-in-the-morning 

 courage " is one of the essentials in the character of a 

 successful rough shooter when he indulges in this frigid 

 pleasure. His slumbers between the sheets of his com- 

 fortable crib hang entirely on the state of the tide ; per- 

 chance he is just indulging in that " beauty-sleep " which 

 doctors tell us it is such ruin to break, when there comes 

 the rattle of gravel on the lattice windows, thrown from the 

 hands of a grim old "salt" below, who appears to sleep 



