DirFEKEKT SPECIES OF DFCKS, 75 



Of all the field sports in tliis colony, I think I did 

 like a good night's flight-shooting the best. There is a 

 charm in this silent solitary sport which I could never 

 find in any other. "When seated -vrell in the shade, by 

 the side of some favourite feeeding-ground, with the 

 moon just on the wane, all is still, save the occasional cry 

 of some night-bird as it rises from the neighbouring 

 swainp, or the whistle of the wings of a pair of ducks, as 

 they pass overhead, and the croaking of hundreds of small 

 frogs in concert, the deep clock of the bull-frog joining as 

 it were in bass accompaniment. The slight ripple of the 

 clear water dances in the moon's silvery rays, when all at 

 once " whish," a splash in the water, and a sharp " quack 

 quack, quack," warns the shooter that a black duck has 

 pitched, and the concert of frogs is hushed in an instant. 

 This is soon joined by others, and having risen on the 

 water three or four times to shake their feathers, and 

 chased each other about for a few minutes, they settle 

 down to feed. J^ow is a moment of breathless suspense 

 to the shooter ; the gun is quietly raised, but the birds 

 at first are too far, or not well packed ; however, at 

 length, he gets three or four in a line, and the heavy 

 boom of the gun breaks the stillness of night, re- 

 verberating over the swamp with a hundred echoes. It 

 may be that some scores of birds were feeding on the 

 lagoon out of sight, which now rise like a clap of 

 thunder, and the air is disturbed by the wings and the 

 cries of the birds as they fly round the shooter's head. 

 His quick ear can well distinguish the difi'erent birds by 



