196 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



sky, while enterprising chalk works or what not "realize 

 the natural wealth of the neighbourhood ; " and thus the 

 wildfowler's land is all in new hands, the rivers on which 

 he punted to widgeon or brent geese are turgid and 

 churned by the screws of unnumbered steamers. Along the 

 actual sea coast it is nearly as bad. There used to be a 

 strip of debatable land, saltings that the sea, the shore- 

 shooter, and herdsmen shared equally between them; but 

 now the latter seems to have monopolized them. He keeps 

 the sea out with dreary mud banks, and the shooter with 

 notice boards and well " spiked " gates ! 



This is the unacred sportsman's view of the matter. For 

 those who own some soil by the water side, or even a pond 

 or two where wildfowl fly in of a night from the open sea, 

 the case is not so bad. They may still know a scaup from 

 a scoter, a shieldrake from a shoveller, when they come across 

 them. They shoot for their own larder, and when the flight 

 is on, or the weather severe, there are still enough stray birds 

 about what were once our wild lands to satisfy all their 

 modest demands. But profitable " decoy ponds " are things 

 of the past, and some of our largest game salesmen, with 

 whom I have gossiped on the subject, say we are more and 

 more dependent on Holland and the German coasts for our 

 wildfowl supplies. For a single week of January, 1886, we 

 drew " fur and feather " to the value of 15,000 from across 

 the North Sea, and meagre indeed would be our market 

 stalls were this source of supply to fail ! Of course our seas, 

 will always attract wildfowl, the great wilderness of the 

 Scottish kingdom, and the vast bays and sheltered estuaries 

 of the Green Island especially must remain more or less pro- 

 ductive. Sir Ralph Payne- Gall wey puts down the yearly 

 bag of the Wexford puntsmeii, some dozen or so in number,, 

 at three or four hundred birds apiece, even in the recent 

 succession of mild winters that have characterized our 

 climate, and he has seen three or four thousand widgeon 

 on a single sheet of water ! I do not think there is any 



