EALLID.E. 285 



the mud-banks of the Barnstaple river. They are shy and restless, and 

 not to be approached, and gunners after Wild Duck do not care to see 

 thera, as they keep all other birds watchful and disturbed. In very 

 severe frosts our dogs have occasionally caught and brought to us a frozen- 

 out Coot found sheltering in an orchard ditch, which is also a very 

 favourite refuge for a Woodcock in similar weather. 



At the far-famed Slapton Ley tbere used formerly to be an annual 

 battue, or public shoot, in the month of January, and the " Ley Day," as 

 it was called, was looked forward to with great delight by all the country- 

 side. Many years ago we took part in one of these exciting events. A 

 line of boats having been formed near the Sands Hotel, stretching all 

 across the ley from side to side, a boatman and two gunners being in each 

 boat, and each gumier being provided with a couple of double-barrelled 

 guns, at a concerted signal the whole line moved forward, sweeping the 

 Ley, and diiving all the Coots, thickly covering the water, in front of them 

 towards the Torcross end. As the end of the Ley was approached, the 

 nnfortunate Coots, being closely packed and unable to go further, rose in 

 one dense mass, churning up the water with their Avings, and affording 

 a spectacle long to be remembered by all who have been fortunate enough 

 to witness the sight. After rising, the whole mass of birds swept back 

 over the boats, being saluted with volleys from the gunners in the boats 

 and from the usual crowd of loafers on the shores of the Ley, armed with 

 long duck-guns and every available variety of firearm. The execution 

 was great, and the water was soon covered with the dead and dying, and 

 Avounded cripples, many of which afforded exciting chases and gave rise 

 to angry altercations between the rival gunners. Few birds besides Coots 

 were killed, as the great flocks of other wild-fowl, which are generally to 

 be seen on the Ley in winter, rose from the water at the first alarm and 

 flew out to sea, a few being dropped as thej' passed over the heads of the 

 people on the beach. For many years these public shoots were dis- 

 continued, but one day at the end of January 1891 Mr. Lucas, the lessee 

 of the Stokeley Estate, allowed shore-shooting as usual, when his party in 

 ten boats, with two gunners in each boat, some of Avhom had as manj^ as 

 four guns each (with two boats employed to pick up drifted birds), drove 

 the Ley. On the first drive down from the Slapton end, nearly all the 

 Wigeon, Ducks, &c. loft before a shot was fired. Mr. Edmund A. S. 

 Elliot, who kindly furnished us with these particulars, thinks there could 

 not have been far short of a thousand birds in the fiock as they rose and 

 went off to sea. The shooting was soon fast and furious at the C'oots, 

 which seemed utterly unable to grasp the situation, after being left un- 

 disturbed for so many years, but the}' could bear thiiining, as the water 

 looked ])lack with them in the early morning Itcfore th(^ shooting begin. 

 As the result of this first diive before lunch, (!(ii) Coots were gathered by 

 the boats, and 22 " Wigeon " of sorts. After lunch the same tactics were 

 gone through again, and the boats came in about 4 p.m. The Coots, when 

 counted, came to (!12, and there were 12 Wigeon, &c. Some fine Tufted 

 Ducks, female Golden-eyes, Scaup, Pochards, Wigeon, ^Mallard and Teal 

 were secured, and some male Uolden-cves and two male Smews got 



