228 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



ducks with a shoulder-gun ; but any one who has tried it 

 knows how rarely ducks of any kind will allow approach in 

 a sailing boat at sea. Still there is, quite independently of 

 killing or sport, a very great charm in shooting under sail. 

 Not only is there an opportunity of observing many wild 

 and interesting fowl, but the sensation of spinning along in 

 one of the fast-sailing cobles of the N.E. coast, as she 

 walks through the seas with a huge wale of hissing angry 

 waters rising in a menacing slope high above her lee gunwale, 

 is in itself most exhilarating. Presently the look-out descries 

 fowl. " Luff ! " he whispers, " Covies (i.e. Scaup) bearing the 

 South Beacon ! " and in a moment the boat is beating up to 

 windward. " Keep your luff!" why, we can hardly keep 

 our seats as the stout coble thrashes through the seas, close 

 hauled to the windward and the flying scud, to say nothing 

 if an occasional bucketful of green water drives athwart her. 

 Nothing short of oilskins will avail to keep one dry as she 

 labours ahead, full and bye, and with the leach of her big 

 brown sail temporarily stiffened with the boathook. At last, 

 when the weather-gauge has been attained, up goes the helm, 

 and, with a flowing sheet, we run in on the pack of Scaup 

 gently rising and falling on the swell. But even Scaup, tame 

 as they are, won't allow a big coble to run right over them at 

 sea, and long before we are in shot one sees the little white 

 jets of spray flying up here and there among the ducks as, 

 one by one, they rise heavily and get under way. Poor 

 birds ! They have done their best to secure safety ; but 

 instinct, or, at any rate, reasoning power, lacks a little at 

 this point. As they steam away full speed in a straggling 

 line to windward, they sometimes fail to observe that the 

 coble's course is once more altered. Under a lee helm 

 she flies up again into the wind, and, with her gathered 

 way, is scudding right into their " line of communications." 

 Moreover, if she has been well handled, she has, under 

 favourable circumstances, perhaps a less distance to traverse 

 than the birds, and this (unless, as of course often happens, 

 they change their course) will bring the fowl right across 

 her bows indeed, sometimes right over them. It is, of 

 course, a very old manoeuvre cutting out 'ducks by a " luff," 



