132 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



short time of each other, the birds were not driven off, but 

 merely moved about a mile further up the channel, where I saw 

 them on my return with the flood-tide; but as the night was just 

 falling I made a bad shot for want of light to enable me to aim 

 correctly at a bunch lying on the side of the bank, and only 

 picked up ten birds for the shot, having fired over them, aiming 

 too high as is generally the case in a bad light. 



Having been obliged to leave home the following day, and 

 living away for three weeks, I lost the whole of December ; and 

 January being far too stormy, there being only one or two days 

 calm enough for punting, it was not until February 3rd that 

 I again came across the Wigeon. 



I was returning from the Moyne channel in my punt, where 

 I had been all day without obtaining a shot at anything (even 

 the Godwits were too wild and unsettled to let me get within 

 shot), and when I got into the main channel I observed about 

 200 Wigeon resting on the edge of the bank on the Scurmore 

 side, opposite the Sloke Eock. The wind was very squally and 

 blowing on shore, and as I paddled up to the birds the wind took 

 the punt on the beam ; and, during a heavy squall, as I got just 

 within that, the wind forced her up on the bank, and before I 

 could get afloat again, and her head turned to the Wigeon, they 

 all made off, and I lost a splendid shot, for the birds were packed 

 as close together as they could stand. 



On the following day I found them near the same place, but the 

 day being calm and very bright they were much wilder, and 

 would not let me get close enough for a heavy shot, so I was 

 obliged to fire a long shot, by which I got only fifteen birds. 

 However, when returning on the flood tide, I saw another little 

 flock of a dozen, out of which I got seven birds. A few Mallards 

 were down during November and December, but after that date 

 they changed their haunts and remained inland altogether, for 

 there were no frosts to drive them down to the seashore. Three 

 or four Scaup Ducks frequented the channel part of the winter, 

 and thirty or forty Goldeneyes haunted the tidal part of the 

 river near Belleek Manor ; and, strange to say, fully one half of 

 the flock, if not more, appeared in the plumage of old males. A 

 large number of Black Scoters were in the bay all the season, 

 fishing just outside the breakers along the island of Bartragh. 

 The fishermen often told me of the Black Ducks, but having 



