234 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



succulent sea-grass, feed and fly with them, just 

 as they would with the geese and ducks on some 

 of their own inland mill-ponds. Now not one shore- 

 shooter in twenty carries a field-glass, and though 

 his local knowledge is in the main accurate, yet 

 he is often a little hazy where swans are concerned. 

 " It's a swan ; but if that bird was not a wild bird 

 it would not be there on salt w r ater," said one man 

 I knew. " Get the punt out ; I am going behind 

 the sea-\vall to fire off my charge of duck-shot, 

 it's too cold to draw it." Presently, as the punt 

 crept up, some fowl rose and flew close by the swan, 

 which began to make preparations for following 

 them. His wings flapped on the water. " Keep 

 her steady when I fire," says the shooter. The 

 report rings over the water, and the swan floats 

 dead on it, the bullet having passed through his 

 body, just below the joints of the wings, "This 

 one is different from the one I shot last week," 

 remarked the man to his companion, when the bird 

 was pulled on board ; " the other was larger, and 

 it had not got a nob on its bill like this one ; it is 

 like what our common swans have." It was, in 

 point of fact, just a domesticated swan that had 



