THE WIGEON. 105 



gregaied^ stations liimseK according to the direction in which 

 he imagines they will fly, and often succeeds in getting shots 

 as they pass overhead. But there are occasionally attractions 

 connected with this shooting, incomparably superior to the sport 

 itself. In a fine winter night, we behold the moon riding in 

 majesty, the stars softly twinkling, the position of some beauteous 

 planet marking unerringly the onward march of time since the 

 last month, when, under similar circumstances of moon and tide, 

 we visited the place. Driven from their marine pasture by the 

 advancing waves-, little flock after flock of wigeon will then appear 

 between us and the pale blue sky. Others, too, of the duck tribe 

 may chance to pass, and we are sure to hear the enlivening and 

 loud calls of the curlew, and various other Grallatores, as they are 

 impelled by the encroaching waters to leave their feeding-banks. 

 Wigeon-shooting, under these circumstances, is now almost 

 wholly discontinued here. 



The wigeon is so much persecuted in Belfast Bay, that before 

 the dawn of morning multitudinous numbers rise from the banks 

 on which they have been feeding all night and betake themselves to 

 Strangford Lough, as a place of comparative security, where they 

 remain all day, but return at twilight to the former locality to 

 spend the night. Some, however, constantly remain here through- 

 out the day, the only exception to which (that I have heard of) 

 was, that during a week^'s frost, commencing on the 24th of 

 December, 1836, none were seen during the day by one of the 

 professional shooters; but they were in abundance by night, 

 when, at a single shot, twenty-three fell by a discharge of his 

 swivel-gun. The same number was subsequently (January 11, 

 1850) procured by another person. The most of these birds killed 

 by a thii'd wild-fowl shooter here at any time, were eighteen by his 

 shoulder-gun and twenty-seven by his swivel-gun. At a more 

 fatal shot (January 20th, 1848), twenty-two wigeon, twelve wild 

 ducks, and one teal were bagged : — a number of wounded birds 

 escaped. In one instance, soon after the introduction of a swivel- 

 gun to Larne Lough, sixty-six, and in another seventy-six, wigeon 

 were picked up from one discharge ; — in addition to the lattre 



