THE SPORTING GUN'S BEDSIDE COMPANION. By Douglas Butler and friends.

2012 1st first edition. 8vo (160 x 240mm). Ppvi,184,ad. B/w photograph. Black boards, spine titled in gilt.

Douglas Butler was a Tipperary farmer, zoologist and avid wildfowler. Here he recounts "thirty shooting stories in pursuit of pheasant, mallard, geese, hares, mink, even an old wild goat. These modern tales involve bilingual dogs, an ignominious goose, red-letter days and disappointments, days on boglands, grouse moors, smart shoots, estuaries. Punt-gunning, rough shooting and wildfowling, dawns and dusks and assorted brushes with ecstasy and near-death." Chapters include: Pawel, the hare and other matters; The white-front that wouldn't go away; Contrasting fortunes; One very frowty afternoon; The fastest gun alive; Quite definitely a wild goose chase; A first encounter; A problem solved; Arrival of the duck; A morning with a difference; Uncle Greg and the rabbit that never was; The last day of the season; The bilingual dog; An addition to the script; One boundary day; An extraordinary event near Aberdeen; Come the dusk; Tall pheasants; The fall guy; Deja vu; The green pheasant; The evening of the big wind. And from Douglas's fellow guns - The man of many tales; Some adventures of a young shot; A night to remember; Memories; Fiach; Under a thorn bush; Now - tell me again - why you were naked with that Labrador; The first of many.