BIRD NOTES 15 



exceedingly hungry and bold. Some wildfowl 

 resting upon the ice attracted the attention of 

 one of the punt gunners, who contrived, after some 

 skilful manoeuvring, to get within range of them. 

 Pulling the trigger, he succeeded in killing a couple ; 

 but before he could manage to secure his victims a 

 party of watchful Hoodies fell upon the ducks and 

 began tearing them to pieces before his very eyes. 

 Snatching up a shoulder-gun he let fly at them, 

 laying three dead upon the ice, when he scrambled 

 out and secured them all. 



On similar occasions, when hard pressed, it is 

 interesting to watch these sturdy birds carefully 

 patrolling the ice and the flint walls in search of 

 crippled or dead wildfowl; and patches of blood 

 dotting the ice or snow, with a few scattered feathers 

 lying about amid a confusion of crow footprints, are 

 wonderfully suggestive. Here a Gull has been torn 

 to pieces, and there a dead fowl. A well-defined 

 series of double footprints, leading towards a common 

 centre, mark where a hungry Crow alighted and 

 walked in to help his companion. Occasionally one 

 can discern, by a tinier blood-spot, and a very few 

 dottings of the Hoodies' toes, where a hapless Dunlin 

 was discovered, bolted almost, if not altogether, 



