'Long - shore Caterers
St. Valentine now marks, more precisely than before, the beginning of the spring, for the reason that the close season for a number at birds, especially geese and duck, has been made earlier. It is question nevertheless whether this new regulation has been strictly observed. The number of duck, rare or common, and of other birds, curlew, for example, and even swans and heron, that have appeared in shops has given qualms to the preservers ; and my own experience has been that the black market in such game flourishes in railway trains and outside any poulterer's shop. I was once asked in a railway carriage whether I would buy a woodcock, and the sportsman produced from a capacious sack several curlew! These 'long-shore poachers have enjoyed a hey-day which should now be over ; and perhaps their depredations are not large in the sum of things. There is some reason to believe that conditions in the north, possibly war as well as weather, have given England the largest population of duck in variety known for a great many years.
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