CANADA GOOSE. 259 



beating heart he beholds a large flock of teal 

 drop as if from the clouds among the rank, and 

 at once raking them where they sit in the 

 thickest cluster, discharges his second barrel 

 with deadly effect as they rise. After this, per- 

 haps, as the sky grows still clearer, looking 

 towards the eastern horizon, he sees just above 

 the rising sun a small black cloud no bigger 

 than his hand; as he looks it becomes appa- 

 rently larger, when not daring to move hand or 

 foot or even an eyelid, he lies close as death 

 itself; with his finger on the guard, waiting for 

 the instant to fire at the ranks of the dusky duck. 

 If the morning be still and calm they will most 

 probably soar too high for his piece; but, perhaps, 

 the winds blow a half a gale over the troubled 

 expanse of water and the decaying herbage of 

 the shore ; in that case they will stool or fly 

 low, and if he shoots at the proper moment, be 

 almost certain to pay toll. A little later in the 

 morning, while sailing up the river towards the 

 New Bar the ducks having ceased to stool 

 below the shooter espies some dark object 

 moving on the edge of the marshy shore ; ex- 

 amined with a spy-glass, it proves to be a little 

 blue-winged teal apparently playing in circles 

 on the water ; the mast is instantly struck ; 



