CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 177 



were still just cute enough to know pretty well the 

 effective nino-e of a oun. 



Before continuing, I think it may be as well to 

 say that, Waterville being the principal station for the 

 American cables, there were a great many clerks there 

 in connection with the several companies, and that 

 amongst them there were not a few who were very 

 fond of sport and possessed fowling-pieces of various 

 calibres. Now my little i6 bore gun, although 

 excellent for the purpose of shooting Woodcock and 

 Snipe, was not at all suitable for such birds as Wild- 

 Geese, being not nearly powerful enough. Luckily, 

 however, wherever there was a man in Waterville 

 who possessed a gun John generally knew him, so I 

 instructed him to oet me the loan of a larger bored 

 gun if he could from amongst some of his telegraph 

 clerk friends. This he did, procuring me a 12 bore, 

 choked in both barrels ; a wonderfullv hard hittino- 

 gun according to the owner's account. 



Some days after this I decided upon giving up 

 one whole day's Snipe and Woodcock shooting in 

 order that the time be exclusively devoted to the 

 Geese ; so on that particular day John and myself 

 made an early start in an Irish jaunting car with the 

 intention of searching all the bogs on Galvin's 

 ground for Geese, wherever roads would admit of 

 our driving across them. 



We had driven pretty well the whole of one 

 morning without seeing any, and John had left the 

 car to go and look on some higher ground which lay 

 to the left of us, and could not be seen from the 



