58 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



town from Breydon, and launched forth from the 

 beach to try his hand at a shot at the Scoters. After 

 some manoeuvring he managed to get within shot 

 of the crowd. They, however, appeared a trifle too 

 sharp for him, and dived safely out of harm at the 

 very clink of the hammer; but two Velvet-Scoters 

 (CEdemia fusca), not so wary, fell to the discharge, 

 and were secured. The scared Scoters allowed him 

 to take no further liberties. It is curious that the 

 Velvet-Scoter occasionally mixes with the commoner 

 species, and in their company, too, the Long-tailed 

 Duck (Harelda glacialis\ usually immature, is some- 

 times seen, driven southwards also by the severity of 

 the weather. A Velvet-Scoter entangled itself in a 

 herring-net in October 1893. 



FISHERMEN SPORTSMEN 



In the palmier days of the trawl-fishing at Yarmouth, 

 when so many "little masters 1 ' (the skipper occa- 

 sionally being owner himself) owned a fishing smack, 

 and short voyages, known as " single-boating " (in 

 contradistinction to those which sailed in "fleets" 

 and kept afloat for weeks), were taken, many a 

 skipper carried his gun to sea with him, on the 



