180 THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. 



of very great boating and ordinary shooting privileges, was 

 scarcely a place for good wild fowl shooting ; though one 

 could hardly sail on Loch Fyne's broad bosom or sneak along its 

 shores in a punt without seeing something to reward one for the 

 trouble. Still I have not added much to my notes on the wild 

 fowl of the West during my seven or eight years' residence on the 

 margin of Loch Fyne. Where I am at this moment temporarily 

 located, on the shallow, monotonous shore of West Sussex, it is 

 almost an event to see a solitary Herring Gull or a disconsolate 

 Ring Dotterel ; but many of the older " long-shore men " possess 

 ponderous old duck guns, and spin tantalising yarns of miraculous 

 flocks of wild fowl, ducks, geese, widgeon, and teal, which used 

 to swarm here before " the marshes was drain'd." 



One old coastguardsman, who was stationed at Pagham when 

 Colonel Hawker used to frequent that muddy estuary, has told 

 me many interesting and amusing stories connected with that 

 great sporting oracle of South Britain, which are unpublished. 

 It is a great change conversing with a South Coast trawler after 

 being so long used to the dialect of the Highland fishermen; but the 

 same spirit is in both — when a man has succeeded in shooting his 

 Curlew he is as earnest in the account of how he circumvented 

 her, whether he calls the wary bird a " Crauntag or a Clew." 



I see you retain my name as a corresponding member of the 

 society, though, alas ! it is a mere honorary distinction now. 

 Rather than not contribute anything at all, I will relate what 

 came under my observation on the 5 th October last. Though 

 the Swallow is abundant here, and the Swift very common, we 

 have not many Martins ; but on this day I observed an immense 



