THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
Other good shots realized 20, 23, and 28 geese, 28 curlews, 
8 swans, etc., while the total for the season reached 310 geese, 
219 wigeon, 30 other ducks, 19 wild swans, 34 curlews, etc., etc. 
The Colonel’s grand total of wildfowl for that season amounted 
to 758, of which 573 were ducks and geese. 
The above magnificent results were, be it emphasized once more, quite 
exceptional — the harvest of two severe and peculiarly favourable winters. 
But they verily stand out as green oases in the midst of dreary deserts of 
blank days and weeks, and of months of labour lost during his long records 
extending over half a century. 
The biggest shot at brent geese hitherto recorded in British waters 
was, I believe, that made by Sir Charles Ross, Bart., in Cromarty Firth in 
February, 1895, when no fewer than 52 birds were gathered. 
WILDFOWLING ABROAD 
Holland and France . — On the Dutch coast results are obtained far ex- 
ceeding those possible at home. The well-known fowler. Captain G. I. 
Gould, R.E., has recorded the following totals, made with a gun carrying 
32 ounces of shot.* 
1894-5. 1,453 wildfowl. The best six shots produced 315 wigeon. 
1897- 8. 1,808 wildfowl in 67 shots; best shot, 121 wigeon. 
1898- 9. 1,478 wildfowl; three best shots: Oct. 11, 149 wigeon; 
Nov. 11, 122 wigeon and teal; Nov. 29, 132 teal. 
The late Mr T. M. Pike, whose premature death came as a shock to 
me who well remembered his exceptional strength in old Rugby days, 
leased for many years from the Dutch Government the gunning rights on 
the Veere Gat, and recorded, among many interesting facts, his best shots 
thus; 
26 pinkfooted geese at one shot (48 in all during that same day). 
40 bernacle geese, one shot, Krammerske Slikken. 
120 brent geese in four days, January, 1891. 
163 ducks and geese in seven shots, season 1900-1. 
On the western French coast (the Morbihan Estuary), another wonderful 
record has been made by Mr W. H. Pope. In the season of 1890-1, in com- 
pany with Captain Gould, and using a gun carrying only sixteen ounces 
of shot, there were bagged: 
1,425 geese, wigeon and mallard. 
* Quoted from Wildfowl, by L. H. de Visme Shaw and W. H. Pope {^Longman’s Fur and Feather Series). 
406 
