Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/179

Rh obtained. Ducks of various kinds—mallard, teal, wigeon, pintails, even the rare garganey—fell to his gun; sometimes he would slip down to the Point of Ayr, risking rough weather, and on the hauls obtain "black ducks and tufters" (scoters and tufted ducks). Curlew, golden and grey or "silver" plover, and small waders were marketable; once he declared he got 240 knots at a shot, and considering how these birds crowd together when the tide flows his story may well have been true. Shovelers he knew, but called them "spoonbills," and when he really obtained the latter bird he distinguished it as a "white spoonbill."

Those who condemn wild-fowling as massacre know nothing of the sport, nor of the avifauna of the tidal estuaries; apparently large bags obtained with the "big gun" are trifles compared with the vast hordes of fowl which frequent the flats and saltings in winter. The shots are difficult to obtain, as often as not are not obtained, and a second shot is impossible anywhere near the first for some considerable time. The skill, knowledge, endurance, patience, and pluck required to make a successful "gunner" make wild-fowling one of the best sports; it is far too arduous and dangerous for the majority; as a profession it no longer pays. When it is, as in this case it was, a means of livelihood, no one has a right to criticise; wild-fowl are alike food for rich and poor.

William Kemp, "Billy th' Duck," came to Cheshire at the very beginning of the nineteenth century; James Kemp died in 1905. For nearly a century father and sons—for James had a brother, who also for a time followed his father's profession—led the way as Cheshire wild-fowlers. Others imitated them with more or less success. but now, in days of easier carriage, professional wild-fowling has vanished from the county.