1 8 WOODLAND, MOOR, AND STREAM 



times ; their feathers are puffed out, making them 

 look twice their natural size. A gull comes flapping 

 over on the hunt, for a dead or wounded bird is a 

 nice meal for him. From a bunch of dead flags, 

 with a scape-scape-scape up springs a snipe with that 

 twist-and-turn-about flight peculiar to himself and 

 his relatives. He is not fired at, for if there are any 

 fowl in hiding anywhere in his line of flight that cry 

 will move them. It has done so ; three mallards rise 

 from a dyke ; they are low down and fly straight 

 to where I am standing by the willows ; three in a 

 line, their green heads glistening in the sun, and the 

 red-brown of their breasts showing distinctly. They 

 are near enough now, I think, two of them at any 

 rate. ' Bang ! ' ' Quack, quack ; ' a twist and turn of 

 their necks and bodies tells that they have been hit, 

 but neither bird falls. It serves one right, for it is 

 almost useless firing at fowl coming right at you : 

 the breast feathers are so thick. It is a warning to 

 resist temptation for the future. As we near the 

 Saltings something springs from a patch of dead 

 flag ; which we shoot, and it proves to be a fine 

 specimen of the short- eared owl or 'woodcock owl' 

 of the marshmen. His light body and hawk-like 

 flight often lead folks to take him for some other 

 bird. He hunts by day as well as in the evening ; 



