224 THE BIKDS OF DEVON. 



shot, as the birds drop dead or crippled on the beach benoatli, and the 

 next moment our faithful retriever is hard at work over the cliff. 



" Xn incident, which nearly led to a tragic end, occurred as I was 

 once retrieving a wounded Wigeon over the soft, treacherous mud. 

 I got a long shot at some birds over the mud, and wounded one which 

 I immediately went in pursuit of, gun in hand ; the wounded bird 

 could run (juite as fast as I could flounder through the mud, knee- 

 deep as it was at every step. Presently, down I went up to my middle 

 in a soft place, and struggle as I would, I could not get my legs free. 

 After trying in vain to get clear, until, in fact, my strength was exhausted, 

 I realized my precarious position, as the tide was flowing fast, and night 

 was drawing on. My shouting drew no response, nor the rapid flriiig of 

 my breech-loader the help so urgently needed, and no boats were passing 

 up or down tho river, yet there, in the too near distance, I noticed the 

 rippling tide fast api)roiiching. Some method of extricating myself must 

 be thought of, and that quickly ; when suddenly, as by an inspiration, a 

 similar scene came before me, which I had read of in ray vade mecum, 

 ' Daniel's llural Sports,' Avhere the gunner had saved himself by using his 

 gun as a lever, thus dragging the lower part of his body out, and rolling 

 to the harder edge. Fortunately, this manoeuvre was successful in my 

 c?.se, and not a moment too soon, for the tide was now up to me, and I 

 had to swim the lake, gun in hand, to reach the shore." 



Pintail. Dafila acuta (Linn.). 



[Pheasant Duck, Sea-Pheasant (X D.).'] 



An occasional winter visitor to our bays, estuaries, and rivers, and much 

 less frequently obtained now than formerly. 



This elegant Duck is now one of the rarest of the fowl met with in 

 ISTorth Devon, where many j-ears ago it must have been not uncommon, 

 as it was well known to the boatmen at Instow by the name of Sea- 

 Pheasant. We can only remember a single example, and that a Duck, 

 occurring on the Barnstaple river. One or two have been brought, at 

 different times, to the Barnstaple bird-stuftcr. 



Mr. E. H. llodd states that the Pintail is not rare as a winter visitor to 

 the Land's End district, and mentions a wonderful shot made by a farmer 

 in 1853, who, discharging both barrels of a heavy Duck-gun from his 

 shoulders into a large flock of Pintails, picked up thirty-seven Pintails 

 and one Wigeon ! We never saw a Somersetshire Pintail ; but Mr. Cecil 

 Smith thought the species visited the county regularly every winter, and 

 states that in the winter of 186S-GU it was unusually common. On the 

 Dorsetshire Coast ^Er. Mansel-PIeydell considers it a regular winter 

 visitor in small numbers. 



The Pintail is widely distributed over the world ; prefers quiet inland 

 waters : and is always a shy and wary bird. The adult drakes, in their 

 full spring plumage, are very handsome, and we have seen beautiful spe- 



