Sporting Notes in the Far East. 39 



and nightly haunts. For as sure, as you carefully take up your 

 position in one spot, so will the duck appear to take a totally 

 different route. 



However ; when after many disappointments, the 'Tom Tiddler's' 

 ground is at last discovered, one will enjoy in my humble opinion, 

 the most attractive of all kinds of sport with the gun, namely : 

 " Good Flight Shooting." 



How well one remembers the anxious waiting, by the edge of 

 some lonely marsh, for that precious half hour between the lights. 

 Old Sol has run his course ; and nothing breaks the almost oppres- 

 sive stillness of closing day, excepting perhaps, the distant quack 

 of some stout old mallard, or the low expectant whine, of the 

 knowing old dog. Then comes the thrice welcome, "whish, whish, 

 whish," of the first arrivals, speeding along at a hundred miles an 

 hour, for that still, cosy, rush-bordered pool that they know so well. 

 A sure sign this to get ready ; for the vanguard are hardly out of 

 sight, before the fun commences. First one, then three, now by 

 the dozens, fast and furious, they come pelting past ; till darkness 

 and a falling off in the number of hurrying wayfarers, puts a gradual 

 end, to this only too brief period of constant firing, almost as quick 

 as you can load and raise the gun to the shoulder. 



There are unfortunately two drawbacks to this excellent sport. 

 Firstly, its extreme brevity through loss of light; and secondly, the 

 subsequent great difficulty in gathering the slain, the sportsman 



