THROUGH WILD EUROPE 209 



the lagoon after the duck. B used to lie up 



among the herbage on one island, and I would do 

 the same on another at a little distance ; while the 

 man would paddle round and disturb the ducks, 

 putting up the flocks as soon as they had con- 

 gregated together. But the pace the Pintails, Teal, 

 Wigeon and other ducks would pass our stands 

 was astonishing. Sometimes a falling duck or two 

 would splash into the water in reply to our fire ; 

 sometimes a cripple would require another cartridge 

 to stop it; but on the whole the weight of the 

 bag would be wofully light in comparison with 

 the expenditure of cartridges. Once I remember 

 bagging five birds with six cartridges, but as a 

 rule the results were far less satisfactory ; and when 

 the man returning from his long round to pick us 

 up at the end of the day found me empty-handed, 

 as once happened, I felt rather small. 



The fact was that I hadn't fired a shot-gun 

 for nearly thirty years, until last year, and then 

 only for collecting purposes, when sitting shots are 

 the rule; and I was very much out of practice. 

 I had had plenty of rifle-shooting at a target, but 

 that, I am convinced, spoils anybody for shooting 

 flying. 



But if I had little to show on some of these 

 occasions there was generally a goodly lot of duck 



to be picked up round B 's island, for he was 



14 



