MARSH BIRDS. 89 



rose on the wing, flashing in grey and white as they wheeled 

 hither and thither ; but what absorbed the attention of our 

 skipper most, and riveted his keen sight for a minute or 

 two, was a glimpse of, perhaps, some dozen birds of more 

 than ordinary size, that took wing, and after a turn, settled 

 again heavily in a creek about a mile away. It did not need 

 his brief ejaculation to tells us they were geese, and forth- 

 with, all lesser game was forgotten in the prospects of a shot 

 at these choice birds from the far north. We stood across 

 the shallow salt lagoon, just as the red winter sun was 

 coming up in the east, the fresh north wind coming with it 

 until we were half a mile from the solitary gander standing 

 sentinel over his flock on a mud bank, outwardly engaged in 

 sorting his back feathers, but, as we knew, keeping a sharp 

 watch on us. Then we got the little dingy to the yawl's 

 "off" side, and ourselves, boy, and dog, slipped in unob- 

 trusively, but held on to the ship until the skipper edged us 

 under cover of a mud bank. We pulled ashore, and while 

 the boy minded the boat, we ourselves slipped in a couple of 

 No. 4 cartridges, previous to making a careful stalk of some 

 three hundred yards. We were within forty paces of the 

 sentinel, on our hands and knees, when his contented chuckle 

 gave way to the silence of alarm. In another minute the 

 "whole flock were off: in their cumbrous fashion all but 

 two that we had stopped, one of which gave the dog a 

 lengthy chase. 



These mud flats are dangerous places to the careless. The 

 waters fill the gullies so insidiously, that one may well be 

 cut off and drowned, unless the greatest precaution is taken. 

 With boats in attendance it is another matter, of course ; 

 but it was at a lonely landspit, covered by a fathom or 

 so of water at high tide, on these shooting grounds, that 

 the body of a shore shooter was found only a short time 

 ago. The luckless fellow had clearly been separated from 

 the mainland, and had gone to the highest ooze he could see, 

 had driven the barrels of his gun into the mud, and tied 



