XIX 

 ON WILDER WING 



f ""^HERE is exhilaration in the very 



thought of wild-fowl. The name was, 



and in the main is, confined to certain 



forms to distinguish them from tame 



fowl and from those intermediate types which 



serve the uses of sport. They are not game. 



No law protects, no sentiment hallows them. But, 



like other nomads, a wayward life has taught 



them to look after themselves. 



Bohemians of sport, they have fitful moods and 

 ways, which fall within no conventional lines. 

 Tramps, they camp one night here and another 

 there, with a wild freedom of movement which 

 only long observation may reduce to a certain 

 loose order. To the evening and the morning 

 flight a yearly flight is added. Quite a number 

 of wild-fowl are migrants. It is part of their 

 restlessness. A wild impulse bears them over 

 the sea. Some would yawn themselves to death, 

 year in, year out, on the same hillside, by the 

 same heather. 



Strait-laced sport looked askance at them, as 

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