230 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



approached my position. They hunted a shallow 

 within 100 yards of me for some time, until one of 

 them caught a sea-trout of nearly half a pound. 

 Immediately he caught his prey the other bird 

 dashed at him and endeavoured to tear it out of 

 his mouth. Accordingly he swam away, swiftly 

 pursued by his companion, and the chase lasted a 

 long time, the owner of the fish twisting and turning 

 to escape his greedy comrade, who made frequent 

 dives to come up alongside and wrest the fish from 

 him. Meanwhile the successful fisherman kept 

 shaking the fish and beating it on the water so as 

 to kill it and make it more easy to swallow. At last 

 the attentions of the pursuer became so assiduous 

 that the captor of the fish began to swallow his 

 prey. He got it down all except the tail-end, and 

 this the other bird seized, so that for a time it was 

 a case of " pull devil, pull baker." In the end the 

 owner of the fish struggled free, and the last of the 

 disputed feast vanished from sight. Much water 

 was swallowed, and it was a long time before the fish 

 disappeared down the gullet. The bird then drifted 

 out on to the lake to digest his prey, whilst the 

 unsuccessful fisherman returned to the lake-edge 

 to continue his fishing. 



Having exhausted the possibilities of the shallows, 

 this Goosander commenced diving. He soon passed 

 along to a small promontory, and as his dives were 

 of some duration and the distance was not more 

 than 150 yards, I chanced being detected and ran 

 on to the promontory. The bird then came up 

 just as I arrived there, and at once sprang to wing. 

 He was well within shot, and I laid him dead on 

 the water before he had gone any distance. This 



