256 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



shoot a great deal, in the 'fifties and 'sixties, on the 

 beach, sandhills, and marshes, with a shoulder-gun. 

 "Billy" had two or three dogs in his time that 

 shared his sport with him ; one, a white mongrel, was 

 of great assistance at flighting. On those marshes 

 then known as the " allotments,'" and now carefully 

 drained, and in places cropped the townsfolk used 

 to turn hundreds of geese. Towards evening the 

 gooseherds came to bring home their respective 

 flocks, and had considerable difficulty in persuading 

 them to leave this, to them, paradise of swamp. 

 "Billy's" dog, on arrival, would materially help 

 rounding up, hustling, and driving roadwards the 

 laggard geese, after which he would place himself 

 at his master's disposal in retrieving such fowl as 

 might be shot. 



Another equally devoted mongrel would frequently 

 scent small birds in the furze patches on the 

 common, and as they were flushed he would spring 

 adroitly into the air and catch them in his mouth. 

 He once ran down and caught a Lark, carrying it 

 home in his mouth uninjured. A neighbour secured 

 the bird, which was put in a cage and lived for three 

 or four years in captivity. No less than five different 

 Woodcocks did this dog, in his time, track down and 



