15 



doubt the largest of the ponds was frequented at night 

 by considerable numbers of birds^ as on the leeward side 

 he had found quite a small pile of feathers. I was not 

 surprised at this_, as fowl^ at all events some of them, if 

 much disturbed at '^ ^ight" time, or, in other words, 

 much shot at, will fly to a large pond in preference to the 

 mud. 



Next evening, at dusk, we repaired thither, and on 

 arriving we found the pond frozen over, as, indeed, we 

 expected. This was annoying ; but we broke the ice up 

 in the middle for the space of ten or twelve feet, and 

 hauled the fragments on the banks ; we then cut down 

 some brushwood or furze, and built up a sort of breast- 

 work, took a pull at the " Irishman^^ (of which Master 

 Bill had grown surprisingly fond), and quietly waited. 

 Goodness, how cold it was ! It was really dreadful, and 

 we dared not move a peg, as the fowl were whistling over 

 head, evidently as wild as possible. For half an hour it 

 ^a,s cavendish and dew, till all of a sudden whi-s-h! came 

 a bunch of four wigeon on to the ice. Out shrills the 

 clear note of the old cock, and a minute after they are in 

 the open water. How tempting • they looked! I could 

 have bagged the lot with one barrel. Wait a bit, how- 

 ever j here they come like a whirlwind! — at least thirty, 

 with perhaps a duck or two among them. They circle 

 round overhead ; " wh-i-sp V' goes the old cock again 

 below; a flutter, and down go the lot to join him. 

 " Jingo! thirty-five on ^em, if there^s one,^^ whispers Bill, 

 fingering his trigger, and eyeing them as a Greek bandit 

 would a treasure train. ^^ Now, when I say ready ^ give 

 a whistle.^' " All right, sir.'^ Up go their heads — they 

 crowd together, and are just going — bang ! bang ! bang ! 

 go the three barrels into the brown of 'em, sending fowl. 



