HORSE Y DISTRICT 205 



" From a secluded little pond or pulk-hole in a marsh, which 

 had been excavated near to the river wall, we bag a duck and 

 mallard, whilst the retriever, in spite of all our shouting, 

 makes off on a small excursion on his own and returns in 

 about twenty minutes from a thick reed bed with a wounded 

 pochard, evidently shot by some flight shooter no consider- 

 able time before. 



" A Norwegian crow, which was rash enough to croak over 

 our friend's head, meets with an untimely end, but we leave it 

 where it falls, in the middle of a freshly-ploughed field, 

 thinking it may be of some use to the farmer at a future 

 period to frighten other marauders from his seed corn. 



" Being now some distance from home, and as the evening 

 is advancing, we think it best to turn our steps in that 

 direction. We therefore make for the river wall, and find 

 ourselves well within sight of that vast sheet of water, 

 Hickling Broad. Many a small lot of fowl can we see circling 

 round the creeks and bays, but although we waste a cartridge 

 in the hope of disturbing some that may happen to be in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, which we hope may come within 

 shot of us, concealed as we are for the moment in a dense 

 mass of reeds and rushes, we are disappointed ; none appear, 

 and after waiting a few minutes we proceed on our way home- 

 wards along the top of the wall. In the next 200 yards we 

 twice kill snipe as they are flying over the reeds round the 

 edge of Heigham Sounds, but although we spend upwards of 

 half an hour trying to retrieve them, we are compelled to 

 abandon the hope, and afterwards refuse to shoot several birds 

 which we might have killed on account of the difficulty in 

 obtaining them should we have been successful in our shots. 



" The sun is now setting, and the crimson flush which lights 

 up the whole sky foretells of coming wind and stormy weather. 

 There is a nice breeze blowing, and several large flocks of 

 peewits can be seen winging their way from one favourite 

 feeding place to another. 



" We are picking our steps across a wet, rough marsh, when 

 suddenly, with a whisk and a whirl, a little knot of birds 



