Knot. 435 



story. It is the custom of the wild-fowl shooters or 'gunners/ as 

 they are called on the Norfolk coast, to paddle noiselessly down 

 the creeks of the Wash in a low narrow gun-boat or canoe, with 

 a large duck gun moving on a swivel lashed like a cannon in the 

 bow ; and a single lucky shot into a flock of geese, or ducks, or 

 knots, or other birds, frequently produces a great harvest of spoil. 

 With one of these gunners I was very well acquainted, and have 

 been accustomed to overhaul the produce of his day's or rather 

 night's excursion, in search of rare ^specimens; and from him I 

 have gathered a great deal of information on the shore-feeding 

 birds of the eastern coast. He has often astonished me by the 

 quantities of ducks of various species with which his boat was 

 loaded on his return, and I have seen half a sackful of Knots, 

 amounting to above 200 in number, turned out on the floor of his 

 cottage as the result of one fortunate shot with the long gun ; but 

 when he assured me that on one occasion he had picked up and 

 brought home after a single discharge no less than 36 dozen and 

 11 Knots, or 443 birds, I acknowledged that I was incredulous, 

 till conversation with sportsmen of the neighbourhood convinced 

 me that the story was true ; and then I felt ashamed that ignor- 

 ance of shore-shooting in the fens led me to doubt the word of an 

 honest man. Since then I have often watched the Knots by the 

 hour together on the Norfolk coast, on the shores of the Wash; 

 and with a double field-glassXthe ornithologist's best companion) 

 have followed the every movement of these busy birds ; and 

 seeing the dense array of the countless hosts which compose 

 a flock, I can well understand the havoc which a well-aimed dis- 

 charge of the big gun must cause. 



In my former papers on the ' Ornithology of Wilts ' I quoted 

 Thompson as having more practical knowledge of shore-shooting 

 with the swivel gun than any other author of birds with whose 

 work I was then acquainted, and as one who will be found in 

 great measure to corroborate this assertion ;* but since then we 

 have had the advantage of the books written by Sir K. Payne - 



See Thompson's 'Natural History of Ireland,' vol. ii., p. 292, under the 

 head of ' Dunlin,' and p. 309, under the head of * Knot.' 



282 



