THE GAME-DUCKS 309 



within my knowledge, realised ninety-six wig'eon empunted 

 — fifty-four and forty-two. This occurred in October, 

 1895, the two shots being- obtained within an hour, in an 

 interval between gales. One dozen, however, may be 

 reckoned quite a satisfactory shot : while as many as a 

 score together are not secured twice during an entire 

 winter. The next best shot, after those just cited, also 

 made in October, numbered thirty wigeon. 



So far these notes have been confined to the diurnal 

 habits of the birds under consideration. Now follows the 

 night — by far their busiest and most animated period — 

 and we will try to follow their fortunes under the moon. 

 As the sun sinks below the land, and the gloom of a 

 winter's night gathers around, there is commotion among 

 those keen-eyed hosts which, since daybreak, have been 

 rocking and tossing on the waves, or whiling away the 

 hours on the sand-wastes. The sensation of hunger 

 arouses them again to activity, and about an hour 

 after dark — could one but see them ! — they are rising in 

 detachments, in little trips of two or three to a dozen 

 or more, and speeding away separately through the 

 darkness. Over the sea, and over the desolate sand- 

 links, they hurry forward to the ooze and mud-flats 

 within, and which all day have been deserted, so far 

 as ducks are concerned. Now the dark skies resound 

 with the rustling of wings, and they circle lovingly 

 over the succulent zostera, piping out their pretty 

 resonant "whee-you." Then from right beneath them, 

 flashes a lurid gleam, and, as the report echoes across the 

 waste, down falls poor "Penelope" with sounding flop on the 

 mud. Away speed the survivors, but at point after point they 

 meet with the same inhospitable reception. The " flighters " 

 are out in force to-night, for the moon is well obscured by 



