NETTA RDFINA 257 



round the iiiargin to tlie western side, so as to have the fowl, \\h6n 

 twilight broke, against the daylight sky. ... I soon made out by 

 their cries that the mass of the fowls were Pochards, that there 

 were a vast number of them, and that a great number of them 

 belonged to the present species. Day dawned, and I could see a 

 dense mass of fowl . . . probably fully a quarter of a mile off. 

 . . . . lying down I paddled towards them. Very soon a fresh 

 north-west wind sprang up against me. Quite a sea rose. I was 

 perpetually grounding, and they were swimming away steadily 

 against the wind, so that it was bright sunlight before I got within 

 200 yards, and then I could see they were all Eed-Crests. I had 

 now got into deeper water, and went as hard as I could without 

 splashing ; but they swam steadily away, and I must have gone fully 

 half a mile before I had gained 100 yards on them. Still, they had 

 not shown the slightest signs of suspicion (and I knew their ways 

 well), but were swimming gaily on en masse, head to wind, as they 

 often will on windy mornings. On T went. I had a long heavy 

 English swivel, carrying a pound of shot (No. 1 I had in) ; there 

 were between two and three thousand of them, as closely packed as 

 they coidd swim. I was certainly within 70 yards of the hinder- 

 most bird ; I calculated to get within 40 yards of these and fire 

 over their heads into the centre of the flock. They were closely 

 packed and backs to me, so there was little to gain, and possibly a 

 great deal to lose, by flushing them. I was within 50 yards when 

 again I grounded ; had I even then fired at once I must have made 

 a very large bag, but I thought I knew that this was only a point of 

 a mound, and I wasted some precious moments struggling to get over 

 it with the paddles. The nearest birds must have been 70 yards 

 distant before, seeing I was hard and fast, I snapped an ammunition 

 cap on a little pistol I always carried for the purpose, and raked them 

 as they rose. The next instant there w'as a whole line of birds 

 fluttering on the water, seven dead, and twenty-one winged. I 

 recovered every one of them, but it was noon before I bagged the 

 last ; and if I had had a desperate hard six hours' work, I hardly 

 remember any six hours which I more thoroughly enjoyed." 



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