OF SHOOTING AND FISHING 85 
had fallen dead. Many lunches had been served 
in little buckets, and 8S. told of having brought down 
a teal which fell in his blind, but which he could 
not find. Atlunch time the missing teal was found 
in his bucket. We were always proud of S. when 
it came to relating experiences. 
The following morning, realising from the ex- 
perience of the previous day that it took a very 
short time to shoot twenty-five ducks, we decided 
_ not to start so early. Having a boat and guide to 
myself, I went down the river to a bay lying north- 
west. On leaving the river, we were soon thread- 
ing our way through tortuous channels between 
banks of very soft mud. Hundreds of avocets 
stalked about on these, or fed in the shallow pools. 
Why their bills are curved upward, while those of 
so many other waders turn downward, is a ques- 
tion. The rather plain black and white of autumn 
is not nearly so attractive as the beautiful spring 
plumage—chestnut with delicate cream colour mak- 
ing it a most beautiful bird. There were no stilts 
about, although they are so frequently found with 
the avocets—the latter always look well-dressed, 
with glossy black backs, white breasts, and long 
slender pink legs. 
On the way down the river, I shot a bufflehead 
drake whieh was flying very fast. Its black 
head with conspicuous white mark showed up dis- 
tinctly for quite a distance. When at last all chan- 
nels were passed and we had reached the bay, we 
selected a bunch of tules near the west shore and 
the guide soon had some muds turned up. During 
