Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

50 tales from shooting experiences in England and Scotland

This early works on Wildfowling is an informative and illustrated look at the subject. Contents include; Shoulder Guns, ETC, Clothing & Impedimenta, Dogs, Shore Shooting, Geese, Goose Shooting, Fresh Marsh Shooting, The Punt Gun, The Gear for Punt and Gun, Punting, and On The Testing of Punt Guns..... Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

I have spent a lifetime wildfowling and involved in shooting and fieldsports. Wildfowling has been in my family for over a hundred years, it’s in my blood. I have a passion for punt gunning and have also spent the last year breeding award winning gun dogs, particularly Chesapeake Bay Retrievers. I decided to write this book as quite often I would find myself relaying some of my wildfowling, punt gunning, shooting and dog breeding stories and advice to friends and people I have met. It dawned on me that I had a wealth of experience and stories that I would like to share with others. I have put together this book to give you an insight into the world of wildfowling, fieldsports, punt gunning and dog breeding that I have gained over the years. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed putting it all down on paper. I’ve included some interesting and humorous stories as well from over the years.

In range, Wild Geese covers the geese of North America, Europe and Asia, and thus the world species except for the Hawaiian Goose or Ne-Ne. The plan of the book is similar to the author's Ducks of Britain and Europe but distribution, status and migration rightly assume a more extensive role in Wild Geese and the detailed text on those subjects is fully complemented by migration and distribution maps. Comprehensive chapters are also devoted to classification, ecology, breeding, identification, and to exploitation and conservation. The identification chapter is especially helpful with sections on adult and first winter birds, downy young, plumage variants and voice, for each species and sub-species, as well as guidance on ageing and sexing geese in the field. The text is effectively supported by 16 identification plates in colour by Carol Ogilvie, showing details of heads and bills as well as all species in flight and on the ground, and downy young. The author is an established authority on ducks and geese and has been a research scientist at the Wildfowl Trust, Slimbridge, England, since 1960.

Whether as sources of joy and pleasure to be fed, counted, and watched, as objects of sport to be hunted and killed, or as food to be harvested, wild birds evoke strong feelings. Sean Nixon traces the transformation of these human passions for wild birds from the early twentieth century through the 1970s, detailing humans’ close encounters with wild birds in Britain and the wider North Atlantic world. Drawing on a rich range of written sources, Passions for Birds reveals how emotional, subjective, and material attachments to wild birds were forged through a period of pronounced social and cultural change. Nixon demonstrates how, for all their differences, new traditions in birdwatching and conservation, field sports, and bird harvesting mobilized remarkably similar feelings towards birds. Striking similarities also emerged in the material forms that each of these practices used to bring birds closer to people – hides and traps, nets and ropes, and binoculars. Wide ranging in scope, Passions for Birds sheds new light on the ways in which wild birds helped shape humans throughout the twentieth century, as well as how birds themselves became burdened with multiple cultural meanings and social anxieties over time.