102 MAGNIFICENT SPORT. 



others kept getting on the wing ; but the rushes 

 were so thickly covered with them, that if I had 

 had fifty double-barrelled guns, I could have 

 brought down a bird right and left with each 

 barrel. The cold, cutting, north-east wind had 

 caused all the wild fowl in the country to collect 

 on this small piece of water, to shelter themselves 

 from the keen blast, and, as ducks always do in 

 windy weather, they all lay very close. In fact, 

 they would hardly rise, and I can compare them to 

 nothing but tame ducks in a pond, rising unwil- 

 lingly when frightened by a dog. I never saw 

 such a number of wild fowl in my life : I have 

 been in the habit of going constantly to Albania, 

 for five seasons, and I never met such an adven- 

 ture before or since. As fast as I could load (no 

 easy matter by the way, with the snow and sleet 

 and cutting wind), I pulled down right and left 

 fat fellows that could scarcely fly. It was a com- 

 pletely wanton, wholesale slaughter. Captain 

 Cunynghame and Mr. Hadaway, who w^ere with 

 me, continued to do the same. 



We did not stop to bag the birds we shot, 

 because there was no time. We continued to 

 load and fire as fast as we could, walking; lei- 



