SEAFOVVL SHOOTING SKETCHES. 17 



retrieved the bird, my new companion proposed to purchase it 

 (the bird, not the dog), as he had not killed anything-, so I sold 

 it to him for luck, and proceeded home very much amused at 

 the nature of the transaction. And it must have been a lucky 

 bird to the verdant shooter, as a few evenings after I heard he 

 had been boasting what a lot of ducks he had killed on the 

 first. 



To return to my friend. In the afternoon I met him coming 

 up under sail, and he took me aboard. As the wind dropped, 

 and it was nearly high water, I took the oars, and whilst rowing 

 R. dropped a bird very nicely, and we picked it up. He had only 

 got five in all, and attributed it to our being so late in the 

 morning, and the great number of shooters out. 



The next morning we went down four of five miles in the 

 canoe, and seeing nothing else, I fired at the first couple of 

 sandpipers which came darting along the water, when down came 

 both ; one, however, we could not recover. Then I dropped 

 three more birds, two being very long shots. I also shot a 

 purre, stint, or dunlin, but, the water being rather lumpy, lost 

 it. 



R., who was rather spoiled by choice between his i2-bore and 

 8-bore, and was undecided which to use, only shot a purre. As 

 we were coming back with the tide, he had a long chance at a 

 stock dove, firing both barrels of his i2-bore, but with no visible 

 result, when I came to the rescue with the 8-bore, and killed a 

 good distance it was by that time. Arriving at the Quay, we 

 mopped out the boat, proceeded home, got something to eat, and 

 then felt all right. 



In the evening we decided to set out with dawn on the follow- 

 ing morning, and, to prevent oversleeping, instead of going to 

 bed, sat up smoking and talking. In the small hours of the 

 morning, however, it began to rain hard, and as there was no 

 sign of abatement at five o'clock, we gave it up and went to bed. 



Renshaw and I have had some queer experiences after sport; 

 fun we have managed, but the sport has not been very great, 

 though I do not think it entirely our fault. I believe that our 

 next night's work was the stiffest of all 



We set out in the evening, the rain having cleared away, and, 

 dropping down the river as soon as the tide began to ebb, kept on 

 the look-out for sport. Whilst intently looking down the river, 

 a few ducks came over, but as we were gazing at something else, 

 we did not observe them until too late to fire, although they 

 must have passed us in very nice range. R. dropped a gull and 

 a sandpiper, and I also got one of the latter. Sandpipers are 

 pretty plentiful in August and September, but I do not remember 

 seeing much of them after. I think they must change their 

 location. As they are not unlike the jacksnipe in flight, and 



