190 



FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XIII. 



They did not see us, and immediately began to 

 feed. It was getting dark, and the old man, not 

 wishing to lose a chance, got up from his hiding- 

 place and ran quickly to the water's edge, firing 

 both barrels at the largest bird as it flew away. His 

 gun was only loaded with No. 3, and the distance, 

 as we afterwards found, was above forty yards. 

 Both the swans flew on for some distance, until we 

 suddenly saw the wing of one give way, and down 

 came the bird into the pool, which was of consider- 

 able size, although shallow. I had left my retriever 

 at home to rest, and before I could stop him, in 

 went the old man, and then began a chase which I 

 have seldom seen equalled. Although the water 

 was shallow, the bottom was uneven ; and every 

 minute down went Donald head foremost. I called 

 to him to let me shoot the bird, and leave it to drift 

 to the shore ; but all in vain. On he went, tum- 

 bling over and over, and the swan swimming and 

 struggling in the water close to him, making an 

 immense splashing and noise. They got quite 

 away from me ; and I had nothing left but to sit 

 down and watch the chase as well as I could 

 through the approaching darkness. At last he 

 hemmed the bird into a rushy corner of the loch, 

 and caught her. But this was no sooner done, than 

 the swan, by her flapping and struggling, tripped 



