118 BY THE WATERSIDE GNGE’ MORE 
winter. The wild duck, chiefly mallards, 
attract the sportsmen, and come in hundreds 
sometimes. A few remain all the year if not 
killed. They are good to eat, so the sport 
may be justified. But every other available 
bird of any size is, unfortunately, also shot, 
whether good to eat or not. Moorhens and 
coot and also snipe are all ‘game’ birds, | 
know, and edible—but, and I will leave the 
matter there. The carrion crows might be 
advantageously destroyed, but they are too 
wary for the gunners. The great grebe used 
to be much more common in England, but it 
has gone the way, alas, of many other beauti- 
ful birds in this country. And now a most 
commendable bill in Parliament this year 
(1908) to protect birds of paradise and others 
being imported for their plumage, may result 
in the extermination of the British king- 
fisher, and indeed any bird from which pretty 
feathers, forsooth, can be obtained. 
A search through Pochard Island (see Part 
I, p. 115) revealed nothing new to us in the 
way of nests or birds, and the undergrowth 
