CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 1 89 



to the place on the shores of the Atlantic, where he 

 expected we should find these birds, literally in 

 thousands ; the only point we had to be careful 

 about was, so to arrange our programme as to catch 

 the tide that would suit our operations and tactics 

 against these Brents, Well, when we got down to 

 the shore I never saw such a sig^ht of Wild-Geese 

 in my life. They were in a sort of bay, standing in 

 a few inches of water, feeding away as the tide came 

 in ; they were so thick that you might have walked 

 on them, but you couldn't get within gunshot by 

 stalking. The only method likely to afford the 

 chance of a shot was by going out to some rocky 

 point or headland, and waiting there concealed 

 amongst the boulders and rocks till the tide got so 

 deep around you as to force you to quit ; your rescue, 

 from what otherwise would have been a perilous posi- 

 tion being effected by an Irish canoe- boat made of 

 canvas and manned by a couple of Paddys. Now this 

 is exactly what the curate and I did ; we went out 

 — the tide being pretty well out — and got on to a 

 sort of promontory, having our canvas-boat and 

 men within easy hail, when the water got too deep. 



We got several shots as Geese passed and re- 

 passed us ; we were not always successful, as there 

 is nothing tougher than a Brent Goose to kill. 

 When the tide drove us out we signalled to the 

 boatmen, and then proceeded to follow up some 

 wounded birds which were on the water. 



We had to fire a good many shots at one or two 

 before they would collapse. I forget what the bag 



