28o WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



drift round them piles ! I'm going to in oars. Right, 

 my son ; right ye are, she's going fine. Keep her 

 a leetle wide o' thet 'ere fust pile-snag. She'll 

 drift round now like a swan." 



" Ease her a little," he whispered, " fur if they're 

 diving it's in the slack t'other side. Ease her." 



Round she went like a drifting leaf, up went his 

 gun to his shoulder, ready for action. I just saw 

 a couple of forms going under water ; then the shot 

 rang out. When the smoke drifted to one side, I 

 saw a young Scaup drake turned turtle, his great 

 paddles working and his white-fronted head moving 

 from side to side. 



" Sharp work, waun't it ? He won't kick much 

 longer. I've got ye ;" but just as he stretched out 

 his hand to gather him in, that young drake righted 

 himself and dived like a flash. The bird was not 

 seen again. No doubt it afterw ards died ; but 

 never, unless the bird is desperately crippled, will a 

 shooter follow a wounded Scaup he knows how 

 useless it would be. 



The Red-crested Pochard (Futigida rufina] and 

 Ferruginous Duck (Fuligula nyroca), or White-faced 

 Duck, as it is called on some parts of the coast, are 

 not likely birds to be met with in the course of 

 ordinary shooting. Although made on the strongest 

 lines, regularly built for the water, diving ducks get 

 drowned when the weather is very bad, for then the 

 life is literally battered and washed out of them. 



