SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 131 



third flew straight for my rock. With eager heart and ready 

 weapon I waited until they skimmed overhead, a quick but 

 fair chance. A female eider dropped on the water to my shot, 

 but seeing she was only winged, I was taking aim with my 

 second barrel when she dived, and did not rise again within 

 range. 



Bang ! bang ! from the islet. My telescope was instantly 

 fixed on my son. He was wading into the sea, where I dis- 

 tinctly saw him pick up a dead bird. Our boatmen, who had 

 been straining hard, now pulled up to my stance, and at the 

 same time my son was making signs to me in a certain direc- 

 tion, so, instead of pursuing my winged duck, we obeyed his 

 signal, and soon spied a solitary bird, which proved a female 

 eider. Upon nearing her she dived, but being hard hit in the 

 body, soon came to the surface again, when we made her safe 

 by a shot. 



This happy right-and-left having supplied a companion to 

 each of the eider drakes, we triumphed in anticipation of our 

 collection being adorned with these superb examples of natu- 

 ral history. Could I have foreseen that ere the day closed 

 another of these much-admired eiders would have deprived me 

 of a shot at the rarest sea-bird I ever detected in the Firth, I 

 might not have regarded them so complacently. 



Having landed to search one of the homeward islands, a 

 male eider was asleep on a promontory which flanked a tiny 

 bay. A ledge of rocks, parallel to both, made the stalk after 

 fowl either in this creek or on the promontory very easy. Ne- 

 glecting (contrary to my wont) to examine the bay, I gave my 

 whole notice to the unsuspecting drake, struck him badly at 

 the sitting shot, and brought him down dead with the other. 



Before I could rise from my hiding, three little sea-fowl 

 swam rapidly into view from the bay. They never saw me, 

 and seeming more surprised than frightened, never attempted 

 to fly. The leader had a hood like a hoopoe, and in the cen- 

 tre of the hood a white star, the Hooded Merganser ! It was 



