328 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



shot, and although a black swan is of no great value for 

 the table, yet being a bird very difficult of approach, and if 

 we have any faith in our early Latin Grammar associations, 

 of considerable rarity, it is always considered a prize in 

 Australia, and in this instance we all fell to the rear 

 whilst our companion made his arrangements for getting a 

 shot at one of the sable band now fully visible some few 

 hundred yards before us. This was to be effected in the fol- 

 lowing manner : The remaining three were to go round the 

 lake, which was not more than two miles in circumference, 

 and make our appearance, if possible, on the opposite and 

 most distant side from the swans, which, upon getting a sight 

 of us, if they did not rise, would in all probability approach 

 nearer to our friend, who was lying in ambuscade with his 

 rifle. We succeeded very well in this attempt, and although 

 we roused many flocks of wild-fowl from their previous 

 repose, the swans only glided gracefully onwards in the 

 desired direction. Presently we heard a sharp crack, and 

 the whole flock (save one that lay struggling in the water) 

 rose into the air with a loud flapping of their broad wings, 

 and disappeared over the tops of the trees. A native ser- 

 vant of the doctor, who had accompanied us from Mel- 

 bourne, very soon acted as a retriever, and not without some 

 difficulty (as the swan was not quite dead, and a stroke from 

 his wing would have been dangerous in deep water) brought 

 him to land. He was a full-grown bird, quite as large as 

 any of the white species at home, and very heavy. My 

 friend's bullet had entered the body about the centre of the 

 right wing, completely traversed the chest, and was lodged 

 close to the skin on the opposite side. The distance of 

 the shot was about one hundred and fifty yards. The lake 

 was too open to admit of our getting any chance at the 

 ducks, so that we contented ourselves with a few specimens 

 of the plover and sandpiper genus, and remounted our 



