THROUGH FIRS AND HEATHER. 309 



after pitching down. The open nature of the water 

 will not allow a boat to be used, not at any rate for 

 fowl, unless it was a fowling-punt with punt-gun. 

 From reliable information I gathered that the fowl 

 when put up from the big pond take a line of flight 

 from there to the little one, so called. To reach 

 this they have to fly over a line of hills that divide 

 two villages. Then many come to grief; for those 

 who shoot know exactly where to place themselves, 

 and where to go, as the fowl never deviate from 

 their habit of flight they always fly in one particu- 

 lar line. My informant told me he had recently 

 shot a whooper on the pond with a rifle, hitting the 

 bird clean through the head, and putting the skiff 

 out for him afterwards ; also, that he had repeatedly 

 killed fowl on the pond, both duck and widgeon, 

 when fired at to put them up. This statement we 

 had not the least reason to doubt; for submerged 

 grass must be the perfection of widgeon-food, and 

 there is any amount of short, sweet grass close to 

 the water's edge. Not one half of the birds shot 

 are recorded; those who get them, and the wild 

 sport inseparably connected with them, keep all 



