1 56 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



was not good for a sound man to travel over, but 

 for a man with a stiff hip-joint, as I had, it was 

 simply impossible. 



The bridge at Ostia, over which the road ran 

 straight between two vast beds of tall reeds, such as 

 are used in building houses, which were of some 

 hundreds of acres, was the favourite place for the 

 ducks and teal to pass from their feeding ground to 

 the great reed beds which I have named. The 

 quantity that used to pass in the morning just at 

 daylight was something hardly to be credited. They 

 came in flocks of two or three hundred together, and 

 most commonly, of course, out of distance, for they 

 had plenty of room without flying near me. How- 

 ever, when they did come near enough. I dropped 

 the contents of my eight gauge William Moore into 

 them, often cutting a hole through them as if a hogs- 

 head had been fired through them. Unless they fell 

 on the road it was impossible to get them out of the 

 vast reed beds, which were from eight to ten feet high, 

 standing in a yard or more of water, and growing as 

 thickly together as possible. I had a very good 

 retriever but he soon got tired in working amongst 

 such thick and wet cover. Many is the time 

 that I have knocked down six or eight at a shot, 



