330 SHOOTING 



almost entirely spoiled snipe and wild-fowl shooting. 

 In the districts where, thirty years ago, ducks might 

 be found by dozens and snipe in swarms, the former 

 are extinct ; and as for the latter, if there happens 

 to be one, it flies off before you are w^ithin lialf a 

 mile of it, as if it was ashamed of being seen in such 

 a place. I well remember the capital shooting I 

 used to get in Berkshire, There was a large swampy 

 common of several hundred acres, all rough sedgy 

 grass and rushes ; on one side w^as a wide ditch full 

 of twists and turns, with high reedy banks, and at 

 the further end a narrow tributary of the Thames, 

 with beds of water-rushes on both sides ; and on the 

 other side were acres of small meadows of from six 

 to ten acres, divided by high hawthorn hedges and 

 deep wide ditches. It was a real " happy hunting- 

 ground " for anyone fond of the sport, and many 

 have been the long days that I and my retriever 

 passed on it. The common itself was invariably 

 full of snipe, and they behaved themselves properly 

 in those days, not rising and going off in whisps 

 directly you appeared, but trying to be shot at 

 decently, like respectable birds. Then the ditch and 

 river were sure to hold ducks ; and after you had 

 hunted the common, it was very exciting work, 

 creeping up the various well-known curves and 

 turns in the ditch, where the ducks usually remained, 



