130 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



To be able to name the different sorts of feathers 

 to be picked up on any woodland walk is an interest 



like that of the knowledge of flowers, which 

 Op . allows one to give each wayside blossom its 

 Feathers name. The gamekeeper may put by the 



more beautiful feathers he finds for presents 

 to his friends. The jay is killed for an egg-thief, 

 but his blue and black wing is borne afterwards 

 to church on the hat of a village maiden.. The 

 keeper has an appreciative eye for the burnished 

 metallic hues of the feathers of cock pheasants of 

 every kind. What greatly pleases him is to point 

 out to the ignorant the existence of those two peculiar 

 feathers in the wings of woodcock the tiny, stiff, 

 pointed feathers, growing close against the base of 

 the first flight feather's shaft in each wing. These 

 he could pick out in the dark by sense of touch. They 

 are to be found in snipe's wings in which they are 

 lighter in colour, and even more minute and in other 

 birds, but it would be difficult to say what particular 

 purpose they serve beyond a finish or covering for the 

 exposed edge of the first flight feather. An unwritten 

 law entitles the shooter of a woodcock to these 

 particular feathers, and formerly the etiquette of 

 sport allowed him to wear them in reasonable numbers 

 in his hat. To-day one may sometimes see them in 

 the hard hat of the poulterer. Painters in olden times 

 appreciated the stiff points of the feathers for delicate 

 work. And there was an agent on a Scotch shoot 

 whereon woodcock are plentiful who maintained the 



