By the Rev. A. 0. Smith. 67 



impulse takes wing, wheels about with simultaneous movement, 

 and as rapidly settles again at the edge of the waves. This general 

 account of their immense numbers may in some degree prepare 

 the way for a marvellous shot, which I am about to relate ; and 

 which will doubtless seem incredible to those whose experience is 

 confined to inland shooting only, and who are unaccustomed to see 

 the vast flights of birds which occasionally collect on our coasts; 

 but of the truth of which I have satisfied myself, and therefore do 

 not hesitate to publish the stor}'. It is the custom of the wild- 

 fowl shooters or " gunners," as they are called on the Norfolk 

 coast, to paddle noiselessly down the creeks of the Wash in a low 

 narrow gun-boat or canoe, with a large duck gun moving on a 

 swivel lashed like a cannon in the bow ; and a single lucky shot 

 into a flock of geese, or ducks, or knots, or other birds, frequently 

 produces a great harvest of spoil. With one of these gunners I 

 am very well acquainted, and have been accustomed to overhaul 

 the produce of his day's or rather night's excursion in search of 

 rare specimens : and from him I have gathered a great deal of 

 information on the shore-feeding birds of the eastern coast. He 

 has often astonished me by the quantities of ducks of various species 

 with which his boat was loaded on his return, and I have seen half 

 a sackful of Knots, amounting to above two hundred in number, 

 turned out on the floor of his cottage as the result of one fortunate 

 shot with the long gun : but when he assured me that on one 

 occasion he had picked up and brought home after a single dis- 

 charge no less than thirty-six dozen and eleven Knots, or four 

 hundred and forty-three birds, I acknowledge that I was incre- 

 dulous, till conversation with sportsmen of the neighbourhood 

 convinced me that the story was true ; and then I felt ashamed 

 that ignorance of shore-shooting in the fens led me to doubt the 

 word of an honest man. Since then I have often watched the 

 Knots by the hour together on the Norfolk coast, on the shores of 

 the Wash ; and with a double field-glass (the ornithologists best 

 companion) have followed the every movement of these busy birds: 

 and seeing the dense array of the countless hosts which compose 

 a flock, I can well understand the havoc which a well-aimed 



