184 CATALOGUE OF I5IRDS. 



beinof the first letter of his name — with his two 

 sisters staying in the hotel. This said N. and myself, 

 having somewhat similar tastes, used to go out 

 Duck flighting together in the short November and 

 December evenings, one of our favourite haunts 

 beinof a concrete wall — a sort of breakwater — six or 

 eieht feet thick, that ran out to a distance of some 

 200 yards into a sort of estuary. Over this wall 

 came Ducks of two or three different kinds from the 

 open sea just as daylight was on the wane. Our 

 plan was to place ourselves in a sitting posture at 

 a distance of 50 yards from each other, and wait 

 for our shots ; we were by no means the only two 

 on that wall of an evening. There was one essential, 

 viz., a good retrieving spaniel, and that N. possessed, 

 as without it anything that did not fall on the wall 

 itself would be lost, being carried out by the tide. 



Another favourite place was on the estuary itself, 

 on what was called the "slob" — that is a sort of slimy 

 ooze left by the tide. This food the Ducks were 

 extremely fond of, and whenever the tide was 

 sufficiently out and fitted in with our time of day for 

 shooting, i.e., daylight disappearing, N. and I used 

 to go down and take up positions on the said "slob " 

 — our plan being to take a square board each, on 

 which we sat, and also a good sized pole, to which 

 we affixed a hurricane lantern, sticking the same into 

 the mud in order to give us our bearings off this 

 somewhat dangerous ground, rendered much more 

 so when the tide was an incoming instead of an out- 

 going one. The most tricky time of all was when 



