144 f^if(i i-'fc f'l^l Sport oil Achill Island. 



a patch of sand about a hundred yards away, and we were 

 able to watch them before they clianj^ed their quarters. 



The next arrivals were two Ducks, who Hew rapidly 

 down towards us with necks outstretched. Here was a chance 

 we had been waiting for, and ihc two succeeding reports were 

 answered by a couple of splashes as the Ducks fell into the 

 Channel. With the aid of a handy boat we quickly i)icked 

 up the birds, and found they were Red-breasted Mergansers 

 useless for eating, owing to their fishy flavour, but handsome 

 birds. Mergansers are rather shy birds and make oti' at the 

 first appearance of danger, cither by diving, at which they 

 are very expert, or else by winging their ihght to safer 

 pastures. 



We stayed at our stone shelter until the afternoon and 

 then clambered back to the other side of Inishbiggle, crossed 

 the Channel at Bull's Mouth, and took up fresh positions on 

 the shore. Our object was to shoot some of the destructive 

 Cormorants that were accustomed to pass clown this Channel 

 in the late afternoon. 



We found they M-ere already j)assing in ones, twos, and 

 threes, with an average of half a minute between each party. 

 Mixed A^-ith them were a 'u umber of Red-throated Divers, but 

 it wa.s the Connorani that we wanted to shoot, and they cer- 

 tainly kept us busy. We werq kept firing continually for 

 nearly an hour, and brought down a large number of Cor- 

 morants, The winter's day "was drawing to a close and it 

 behoved us t^r> make a start from Bull's Mouth, although we 

 still had ideas of further .'^nort on our minds. On the way 

 back to Dugort was a small lake close to the sea. In the 

 evening, just as dusk descended, geese ficw to this spot from 

 the sea, and we agreed we might conclude our day's adven- 

 tures with a bit of "flighting." \\c had not long to wait 

 before a number of geese whirled o\er our heads. They 

 caught us napping, and not a shot was flred. W^e braced 

 ourselves in the e>!:pectation of a similar \'isit, and within five 

 minutes a second flight passed overhead, and a successful 

 shot from my gun brought down a Brindlc Goose. Aftej- 

 that we had to get back home, but well content with the day's 

 experiences, 



