CATALOGUE OF BIRDS, 229 



within easy shot of a certain part of the embank- 

 ment, which I carefully marked. Then, allowing a 

 day or so for the Hoodies to get well on to their 

 quarry, I paid a visit one morning, walking the 

 whole way along the bottom of the embankment till 

 I got to the spot marked with a piece of white paper 

 on the top ; then running up the bank, I surprised 

 them, I made rather a bad shot, I didn't kill my 

 bird stone dead, for he managed to fly across to the 

 other side, where I picked him up afterwards. 



The second specimen was got when out in a boat 

 going down the creek previously mentioned. The 

 sides of this creek were sand, and to prevent the 

 banks giving they had been strengthened by a lot of 

 thorny brushwood pushed in in layers, so that when 

 the tide was out the bank looked a mass of brush- 

 wood, intermingled with sand. I had a companion 

 with me in the boat, a young fellow, and an eight 

 bore gun on hire. On returning to Fosdyke up this 

 creek we saw a party of Hoodies assembled on the 

 top of the bank rather busily engaged. I said to my 

 companion, "Would you like to have a shot with the 

 eight bore ? If so, take one at that lot of Hoodies." 

 Accordingly, he loosed off the eight bore, and 

 bowled over one of them. On the boatman going 

 to pick it up, there was a shout of triumph ; we said 

 "What's up?" He, roaring with laughter, held up 

 a huge conger eel, weighing fifty to sixty pounds, 

 the eyes of which the Hoodies had just finished 

 picking out. The fact was, the poor brute had found 

 itself entangled in the brushwood on the receding 



