A HISTORY OF KENT eggs of pheasant or partridge, but to suppose that it is the custom of these birds to inflict serious damage upon the game-preserver is the greatest possible mistake. The owls should be welcomed as friends by all as destroyers of mice and rats, and their presence in agricultural districts is particularly desirable. The worst enemies of the game preserver are poaching cats and stray dogs, which can do more harm in a single day than all the rest of the so-called vermin can commit in a season. Not only do they catch and kill any bird or rabbit that they come across, but by their constant perambulations of the woods and fields they so frighten pheasants and par- tridges, especially when nesting, that the birds are likely never to return. Of birds undoubtedly the worst destroyers of eggs are the rook — a plentiful enough species in Kent — and the carrion crow, which is not very common in that county, but whose ranks are strengthened during the winter by the arrival of the grey-backed variety from the north. Stoats and weasels (the latter bearing in some parts the name of ' hedge-kine ') are to be found in plenty when not continually trapped and shot, and the rat — one of the worst four-footed foes of the gamekeeper — is always more or less in evi- dence. There is very little to be said about wild- fowling in Kent, a large part of the northern coast being entirely spoiled from the gunner's point of view by the amount of shipping and a numerous population. In the Thames estuary during hard weather wild fowl of various sorts are at times driven in from the open sea, but when this happens the gunners are so numerous that all chances of sport of the sort that is worth having are out of the question. Much the same may be said of the Medway estuary of the Swale, where at one time a good deal of sport both ashore and afloat was obtainable. The rest of the Kentish coast does not furnish ^ any great opportunities for wild-fowling ; and punt- gunning, so ardently pursued during the season upon the Essex and Hampshire coasts, is not looked upon as a business with any prospects of sport or profit. Of later years, too, an immense acreage of marsh-land, where formerly mallard, wigeon, geese of sorts, and various other fowl, besides bitterns, herons, curlews, and many more water-loving species, made their homes, has been drained and turned into grazing land for cattle and sheep. One may still during severe weather come across a few duck here and there, but one may walk for miles sometimes and scarcely see a feather. Snipe are plentiful in certain favoured spots in the water-meadows, some seasons being a great deal better in point of numbers than others, and woodcock are found in fair quantity when weather con- ditions are favourable. But ' cock are not nearly so freely distributed to-day as formerly, and a bag of double figures in a day would nowadays be considered a matter for con- siderable comment. Not so very many years ago fifteen or twenty couple of 'cock in a day's shooting would not have been con- sidered remarkable, but, whatever the cause of it, such things do not now happen. The year 1906-7 was a ' woodcock year,' and much larger bags were obtained every- where than for several seasons previously, although none of the big totals of former times were reached. Another bird which seems to have grown much scarcer in Kent of recent years is the landrail, although from the sporting point of view that fact, perhaps, is little to be regretted. ANGLING Time was, many years ago, when the devotee of the fly-rod was wont to angle in the waters of the Medway and the Stour for the ' king of fish,' but much water has flowed since the last lordly salmon was taken from Kent's principal river with the aid of the rod. The Stour, however, can still boast of sea-trout within its tidal reaches, and these fish are occasionally captured by the persistent angler. These two rivers supply the Kentish fisher- man with the chief part of the angling within the county, and both of them can boast of a long record of sport. But the Medway has sufltered a good deal at the instance of the commerce of the district, which is very considerable, and pollution is not a thing unknown between its banks. One cannot say that the county has anything very excep- tional to offer in the way of sport with what are commonly known as ' game ' fish, but the fact that as much as Cjo a mile has been asked for Kentish trout-fishing goes to show that the possibilities of the rivers of Kent are well understood, and that although they cannot offer such sport as the chalk streams of Hampshire, they can afford very good diversion. The Darent, which is a pic- 504
