70 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



side of a sloping bank of shingle, which bounded 

 this part of the harbour as far as the breakers : 

 a few minutes more and it would have been far 

 out to sea. Here my dog proved invaluable : 

 plunging into the surf, he seized the swan by the 

 disabled pinion, and after a long struggle, during 

 which I frequently lost sight of both dog and 

 bird, he landed it safely on the beach. It proved 

 to be a male hooper, or wild-swan- cygnus ferus 

 of authors. 



I soon afterwards fell in with the hero of the 

 gun-boat, and he gladly availed himself of my 

 water-spaniel's assistance in retrieving many of 

 his wounded ducks, which had struggled to the 

 shore and had found concealment among the 

 rushes on the borders of the muddy coves, with 

 which this side of the harbour was indented. I 

 then examined his spoil. He had killed six 

 hoopers, several brent geese, and nearly twenty 

 ducks of different species, but none of any espe- 

 cial ornithological interest. He told me that he 

 had but lately launched his punt on these waters, 

 having been tempted by the severity of the 

 season and the secluded situation of the harbour 

 to migrate hither from the mud-flats of Poole and 

 Lymington, which swarmed with rival gunners. 



On my way home I skirted the opposite side of 

 the estuary, and, as the tide had by this time 



