( 185 ) 



CHAPTER XVII. 



" OLD KITTIWAKE." 



" Old Kittiwake," as he was invariably called, 

 was a survival of pre-breechloading days. His 

 decline was contemporaneous with the improve- 

 ments made in firearms and all relating to 

 shooting. In winter he lived his lonely life 

 on the mosses and marshes ; but during sum- 

 mer he turned from fowling to fishing, or 

 assisted in the game preserves. His outward 

 garb seemed more a production of nature than of 

 art, and was only changed when, like the outer 

 cuticle of a snake, it sloughed off. When any 

 stray Fowler or Shore-shooter told Kittiwake 

 of the effect of a single shot of their big punt 

 guns, he would cap their stories by going back 

 to the days of decoying. That was the time 

 for fowl ! and there was pathos in his voice as 



