234 Mr. G. C. Taylor on the 



quick enough to escape the shot of a good percussion gun. I 

 speak from years of experience in shooting waterfowl. At one 

 time, when I followed punt-shooting with a large gun, I had 

 become from long practice so adroit in stopping cripples, that I 

 could kill them by moonlight, by aiming at the splash they made 

 on rising to the surface, before they had time to dive again. My 

 difficulty with the caiquejis was that they talked incessantly, 

 and alarmed many birds which I should otherwise have obtained. 

 Having no interest in the sport, and being naturally lazy, they 

 soon got tired of it, and would not exert themselves at the right 

 moment. Sluggish rowers are useless for such work. 



I one day met a French soldier, on his return to camp, 

 carrying some Grebes, which he had shot in the Tchernaya 

 with a Russian musket. I ventured to express a doubt as to 

 whether they would be good eating, upon which he assured me 

 that I was mistaken — that they were " poules d'eau " and " bien 

 cstimes." Still I doubt if they proved as good as the cat which 

 on another occasion I met two French soldiers swinging between 

 them, on their way from Sevastopol, and which they told me 

 they intended for a ragout. 



Cormorants {Phalacracorax carbo) and Shags (P. graculus) 

 were abundant in the Crimea. I remember one day especially, 

 in January 1855, when the harbour of Balaklava was alive 

 with them, probably owing to some unusual influx of fish. They 

 were flying to and fro among the rigging of the ships, and diving 

 dose alongside, and were very tame. I killed four, in two shots, 

 for the sailors of the ' Oscar,' in which ship I was then living, 

 who wanted some fresh meat. I hope they liked them, and 

 found them as good as the Frenchmen did the Grebes. For 

 ray part, I should think Cormorants and Turkey Buzzards 

 [Cathartes aura) were about equal in flavour. 



When I was on board the ' Agamemnon,' then anchored off" 

 the entrance of Sevastopol harbour, flocks of Cormorants used 

 to string along every evening to roost, in such multitudes that I 

 might have taken them for Brent Geese, had I not been mindful 

 of Colonel Hawker's maxim for distinguishing the diff"erence 

 under such circumstances, viz. that the former have longer necks 

 and tails, and occasionally cease to flap their wings as they fly. 



