370 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



by severe weather. On one occasion I saw the lake 

 literally black they almost covered it for a length 

 of half a mile and a breadth of about a quarter. It 

 was a sight not to be quickly forgotten, and the 

 noise of their wings as vast parties every now and 

 then rose and wheeled around was something astonish- 

 ing. They only stayed a few days. 



How many times I have endeavoured to trace the 

 V said to be formed by duck while flying, and failed to 

 detect it ! They fly, it is true, in some sort of order ; 

 but those that come to the mere here travel rather 

 in a row, or line, slanting forwards, something like 

 what military men call in echelon. The teal seem 

 much bolder than the wild duck they are often shot 

 as they rise out of the brooks ; but the ducks very rarely 

 go to the brooks at all, and can still more rarely be 

 approached when they do. They swim in the water- 

 carriers in the great irrigated meadows, but are care- 

 ful to remain far out of range ; so that the only way 

 to shoot them by day is for two or more sportsmen 

 to post themselves behind the hedges in different places 

 while a third drives them up. 



The first snipes are seen generally in the arable 

 lands, afterwards round the lake the muddy shores 

 by choice and finally in the brooks. As the winter 

 advances they seem to quit the lake in great part and 

 go down to the brooks. A streamlet that runs through 

 a peaty field is a favourite spot. The little jack-snipe 

 frequent the water-carriers in the irrigated meadows, 

 and the wet furrows. When the lake is frozen over the 



