220 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIKE 



comfortable seats, and pursue our course up the 

 stream. 



We must " gang warily " through the hazel 

 copse at the next bend, as the round backwater 

 just below the Boy's pool is always a sure find 

 for duck, and it is an easy place to get at 

 them. Some rabbits scuttle away through the 

 ferns, and a wood-pigeon flaps round the rowan ; 

 but we reserve our fire, and it is lucky that 

 we do so, for eight or nine ducks rise quack- 

 ing as our heads appear over the dyke, and 

 three of them fall to our volley. A couple 

 of snipe rise as the old dog splashes into the 

 water after the winged mallard ; but we have 

 not got our cartridges in quick enough to secure 

 them. A rabbit or two are rolled over as we 

 plod through the rushes ; they have an unac- 

 countable love of burrowing in the banks of 

 the river, although numbers are drowned when- 

 ever there is a very high flood. My little 

 terrier generally spends the day hunting them 

 when I am after the grilse, but he is very 

 wary of scratching at their holes since the day 

 he got caught in a gin ; and if I see him 

 dancing about outside an earth, and giving a 

 series of growls, I can be pretty sure that I 

 shall find a trap there. To-day, however, we 

 are not after bunnies, and content ourselves with 

 just a couple to vary the bag. 



Another little marsh near the Stance pool, 



