24 EAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



latches; if you liave the wind afc your back, and a 

 ground ebb, you may gently drop down the creeks, and 

 perhaps have the fortune to have four or five fair shots. 

 Of all weathers, thick hazy nights are the worst. A 

 bright starlight night, with a black frost hard enough 

 to freeze the nose off your face, is the best of all times, 

 and if there is just enough wind to rufile the water, so 

 much the better. Should, however, there have been a 

 long-continued severe frost, the first thaw that comes 

 affords the cream of the whole. From long-continued 

 hunger the birds become so ravenous that at ebb 

 flow they may be often approached in daylight. The 

 best time to shoot fowl with a punt gun is about four 

 o'clock in the morning, after they have fed. In ap- 

 proaching them, if you hear them feeding, with their 

 bills all going, you may proceed ; but if they are quite 

 quiet and motionless, they are on the watch. I need 

 hardly mention that it is always best to manoeuvre 

 your punt so that, before working up for your shot, 

 you shall have a hill or black water to approach 

 from. 



Supposing you find yourself hungry, some miles from 

 an inn, and only a coot in your boat, go to work as 

 follows, and you shall have a dish Soyer might envy. 

 The recipe was given me by Fran9ois, a Californian 

 hunter; he used it for curlew. Skin your coot, cut 

 off his head, and take out his inside ; make an incision 

 on each side of his breast, and in each put half a lemon 

 peel, pushing an iron skewer through the incisions and 

 breast bone, to keep all in its place. Inside pub an 

 onion, whole ; sew the bird up, and put him in a pot 

 suspended over a fire by two forked sticks ; add a tea- 

 spoonful of salt, and boil for an hour. If you see a 



