208 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



saw a great cormorant half -anchored by a stone not heavy 

 enough to hold him, going up and down in air and water ; now 

 mounting high, and now dabbing down, the stone hitting the 

 water with the force of a spent cannon-ball. Luckily the stone 

 came in contact with no man's head, and the cormorant cleared 

 to sea, going straight for the Needles, up and down till lost in 

 the distance. In a small stream inland, I have caught a great 

 many herons in this way, in hard weather, laying the bait, a 

 little eel or the tail only of a larger one, so that it would gently 

 play in the stream on the shallows where the herons came in 

 search of the little trout. In the maw of one heron so caught 

 were seven small trout, a thrush, and a mouse. I once killed a 

 heron with a huge water-rat in his belly, which effectually pre- 

 vented my bringing herons again to table, though the heron in 

 former days was considered a princely delicacy. 



It is altogether useless now to frequent Christchurch or even 

 Poole harbours in winter for fowl, as there are so many gunners 

 that the birds are either scared by popguns, or blazed at by 

 great swivel or shoulder guns and completely driven away. 



