THE WIGEON AND POCHARDS 277 



a breath of air stirring, but she has somehow got 

 round the other side of the rock-heaps, so that if 

 you are flounder-netting you have to bring her 

 round again. A school, as it is called, of these 

 goggle-eyed dainties is well worth the trouble of 

 baiting for and catching. Spearing in calm, clear 

 water is very good sport, but for table purposes 

 the fish are better netted. I have had a catch of 

 flounders all alive and leaping, and within an hour 

 after I have been eating some of them fried in &^^ 

 and bread-crumb. That is the way to enjoy fish. 



Now-a-days Scaups are frequently netted. This 

 was not done in my time, when those birds that 

 were killed were shot, with the exception of a few 

 captured with more valuable fowl in the decoys. 

 Sometimes, though not always, their capture is 

 comparatively easy, because they feed with the tide, 

 that is, they come in with it, diving as they advance 

 shorewards. A good bit of shell-feed where they 

 come in is picked out at low water and a net is 

 stretched out on driven-in stakes. When the tide 

 flows, this is all completely covered over, and the 

 birds in diving get tangled in the meshes and are 

 drowned. There seems just now to be a market 

 for every creature, living or dead. This is some- 

 times to be regretted. Some of the Scaups go to 

 the bird-preservers, and a great number — because 

 they are, as one of my fishing friends once said, 

 "not donkey mutton, and not good dog fish" — 

 are eaten in certam establishments on fast-days. 

 Before quitting this subject it may briefly be said 



