12 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Abbe)', about a dozen Wigeon were resting on the side of the 

 bank; they were very unsuspicious, and, letting me come up 

 within shot, I killed four of them dead. The report of the gun 

 disturbed the Golden Plover on the Bartragh sands, and two 

 very large stands were soon circling overhead, but did not come 

 within shot, but again pitched on the bank far out of range. 

 After loading I went further down the channel, and near the 

 ballast-heaps I found four Wigeon feeding between the heaps ; but 

 although I got within forty yards, and waited for some time, I did 

 not fire, because I was never able to get the four together, and 

 did not think it worth firing at a pair. A short distance down 

 I saw a few more, but, like the others, they kept too scattered ; 

 so I passed them, and then saw a Ked-throated Diver and a pair 

 of Sclavonian Grebes diving in the channel. I followed the latter 

 birds for some time, trying to get both together for a shot ; but 

 unfortunately whenever I brought up the punt within shot, they 

 always separated, swimming far asunder, though keeping close 

 together when out of range. I followed them with the same bad 

 luck until I got opposite the Sand-eel Bank, and there, on the 

 other side of the channel, I saw fifteen or twenty feeding along 

 the edge of the water, and, paddling on to them, I found them 

 very wild, not allowing me to get within shot ; so turning the 

 punt, I was just going again after the Grebes, when I saw a 

 number of Wigeon resting on the point of sand in the pool below 

 the Sand-eel Bank, and until then concealed from view by the 

 bend of the channel ; so at once, leaving the Grebes, I crossed 

 over, paddling down to them, but found that, owing to some birds 

 in the water, I was unable to fire at the thickest part of the flock, 

 but was obliged to take those next me, knocking down seventeen 

 birds, but securing only fifteen ; two cripples escaped by hiding 

 in the bent-grass on the sand-hills. 



The wind then rising with the flowing tide, I turned for 

 home, having a very hard pull of five miles before me against a 

 head-wind, and although I had a chance of a very good shot at 

 a large flock of Godwits, I was unable to take it, owing to the 

 rough water. When passing the point of Goose Island I disturbed 

 a Purple Sandpiper, but could not attempt to shoot it, for it was 

 all I could do to make way against the rising wind and high seas, 

 and, by the time I landed, was pretty well tired out ; for working 

 a punt with a a small blade-paddle agianst a head-wind is much 

 more fatiguing than rowing with a pair of ordinary sculls. 



