CHANCE SHOTS AND ODD FISH. 243 



creatures that visit us are no longer to be cir- 

 cumvented as they used to be, it is not that they 

 do not come here as before ; for they do, but not 

 to stay where they once did in fancied security. 



It was this very feeling of security that was the 

 cause of their destruction in hosts for the market. 

 Where their food is, there they still come ; only 

 they are all on the alert now. If they have tradi- 

 tions of their own, they have been handed down 

 of late years in minute detail for the benefit of 

 all fowl that may visit the grass-covered ooze 

 flats, and the sands where at one time they could 

 come and nest, and also feed without molestation. 

 They are not able to do this any longer. Yet 

 listen on flats that I know now, at night, and 

 then say if the fowl are altogether gone. 



" Have you had any sport, Billy ? " I ask a 

 dried - up - looking individual who is dressed in 

 stained cord trousers, nearly covered with what 

 was once a white apron. Over these he wears 

 a flannel jacket, set off by a rusty battered drain- 

 pipe hat of the old orthodox pattern. 



" No, it ain't a bit o' use ; ye see this 'ere weather 



