176 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XII. 



ful of snuff, we shoulder our game and set off. 

 Eight or ten fat mallards, too, are no slight load 

 over a rough track in the dark, so we keep the sands 

 as far as possible, listening to the different cries of 

 the sand-pipers, curlews, and numerous kinds of 

 wild-fowl who feed on the shallows and sandbanks 

 during the night-time. Occasionally in the moon- 

 light we catch a glimpse of the mallards as they rise 

 from some little stream or ditch which runs into the 

 bay, or we see a rabbit hurrying up at our approach 

 from the sea-weed, which he had been nibbling. 



In this way, with very little trouble, and often 

 much nearer home, I can generally reckon on 

 getting some few brace of wild-ducks in the winter : 

 shifting my place of ambush according to the 

 weather, the wind, etc., changes in which cause 

 the birds to take to different feeding-places. 



Trout are not nearly so tender a fish as is gener- 

 ally supposed. At the farm-yard here they have 

 two trout, about six inches or more in length, living 

 in the wooden trough out of which the cart-horses 

 drink. They were caught in the river in August, 

 and throughout all the severe frost have lived, and 

 apparently continued in good condition, although 

 sometimes in passing I have seen the water in the 

 trough so firmly frozen, and the ice apparently 

 reaching so low, that the trout had scarcely room to 



