176 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CII. XII, 



ful of snufF, we shoulder our game and set off. 

 Eight or ten fat mallards, too, are no slight load 

 over a rough track in the dark, so we keep the sands 

 as far as possible, listening to the different cries of 

 the sand-pipers, curlews, and numerous kinds of 

 wild fowl who feed on the shallows and sandbanks 

 during the night time. Occasionally in the moon- 

 light we catch a glimpse of the mallards as they rise 

 from some little stream or ditch which runs into the 

 bay, or we see a rabbit hurrying up at our approach, 

 from the sea-weed, which he had been nibbling. 



In this way, with very little trouble, and often 

 much nearer home, I can generally reckon on 

 getting some few brace of wild ducks in the winter ; 

 shifting my place of ambush according to the weather, 

 the wind, &c., changes in which cause the birds to 

 take to different feeding-places. 



Trout are not nearly so tender a fish as is gene- 

 rally supposed. At the farm-yard here they have 

 two trout, about six inches or more in length, living 

 in the wooden trough out of which the cart horses 

 drink. They were caught in the river in August, 

 and throughout all the severe frost have lived, and 

 apparently continued in good condition, although 

 sometimes in passing I have seen the water in the 

 trough so firmly frozen, and the ice apparently 

 reaching so low, that the trout had scarcely room to 



