68 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



fowl, shot by the big gun hanging in slings in the boathouse. 

 I noticed among them "members" of the brent goose, 

 shoveler, mallard, and pochard. Here and there hung a little 

 sporting print, shoulder-guns, sou'-westers, boots, oily jumpers, 

 and all the paraphernalia of the wildfowlers. 



"I was never a regular Breydoner,you know," said "Strike"; 

 " but have only followed it up on idle days and in hard 

 weather, which meant the same thing " 



" And Sundays ! " I edged in, smiling, pointing to a little 

 heap of mallard in a corner. 



" Strike's " biggest shot, so far as numbers were concerned, 



was obtained one night when up " under the moon." Frost 

 had just set in, and shore birds were crowding south. He 

 saw a huge gathering of dunlins on the "ship lumps," and 

 fired his shoulder-gun at them. After each shot the poor 

 bewildered things dropped down again among the dead and 

 wounded. After the third shot he secured two hundred and 

 forty-two of them, without counting the cripples which 

 scrambled away. 



" I was up Breydon one day making for the old Agnes" 

 said Sharman. (" I've caulked her in my time ! " he inter- 

 jected.) " There was a body of ice in the channel, and 

 I thought I'd lay beside her for shelter ; for she stood high 

 out of the water, and was decked then, as you know. But 



