120 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



the same regard for the wooden decoy ducks which I 

 generally use during the winter months. These are 

 anchored hy means of a line and stone, and always 

 bohbing about, head to wind, are such a correct repre- 

 sentation of a flock of wild fowl, that a gunner who is 

 a stranger to them is certain to approach and fire ; and 

 many a charge have my poor decoys received. 



On one occasion, on Breydon mudflats, three men 

 in one boat cautiously worked up to what they con- 

 sidered a fair distance (about twenty yards), and, all 

 aiming together with the greatest care, fired a volley of 

 six barrels into the thick of the devoted " dummies." 

 Two of them had already loaded and fired again, when 

 a large black hairy quadruped — called by his master, I 

 suppose, a retriever — dashed from the boat, and 

 charged into the centre of the supposed game. Then 

 perceiving that the sagacious animal did not commence 

 to shake and worry the birds (which operation I had 

 previously watched him successfully perform on a 

 wounded Dunhn, to the evident delight of his owner), 

 the sportsmen appeared to comprehend the state of 

 afiairs, and beat a speedy retreat. 



The Knot seems a particularly sociable bird, joining 

 in company with nearly every other species of wader. 

 I remember one autumn on Breydon, that besides 

 above thirty Knots, I obtained at one discharge of the 

 punt gun, specimens, in larger or smaller numbers, of 

 the following species : Piuft', Eedshank, Pigmy curlew, 

 Dunlin, Stint, Greenshank, Spotted Piedshank, and 

 Golden Plover. They also commonly associate with 

 the Godwit, Grey Plover, and Turnstone. 



The specimens in the case were shot on Breydon, in 

 August, 1872. 



