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old gander was killed by one of the labourers. I was informed that they were at first so easy of access, that I then concluded they must have taken flight from some gentleman's pond. The next year again, during the tremendous gales from the west, a flock of about eighty! appeared near the same place; and two more were killed, and sent me, by the same man. I have, therefore, no doubt of their importation, instead of migration, to this country. I suppose these birds were, till of late years, very scarce, as Mr. Bewick could procure no specimen for his admirable work.]

* REDBREASTED, SIBERIAN GOOSE. Anser ruficollis.

A rare and very delicate species.

* WHITEFRONTED, or LAUGHING GOOSE. Anas albifrons-L'oie

rieuse.

These geese were quite unknown to the gunners on the Hampshire coast, till the frost in 1830; and I have seen none there since that year, when they were more or less dispersed over other parts of Great Britain. One Sunday morning, when birds really appear to know their day of safety, about eighty of them pitched in a field close to the village of Milford; which is literally a garrison of popgunners. Three at a shot were killed with a mere popgun, -and by a tailor too! Our friend Snip, feeling himself a privileged man where a goose was concerned, and having, no doubt, seen on the livery buttons (and had construed to him) the motto of "carpe diem," had a fair "set-off" against his transgression, and breach of game-laws and all ended well, as he shopped his game without getting shopped himself.—The poor geese, finding there was not

even one day of safety inland, betook themselves, for security, to the salt water. Here their reception, the next day, was a volley from my two large barrels, which stopped about twenty, though I only got twelve, as we had not sufficient water to get very near them: otherwise, something great might have been done, as these geese appear to be much easier of access than any others. The late Captain Ward told me that he got almost close to thern; and, had not his gun flashed, would have nearly cleared off the company.

The laughing geese fly in more regular order than the Brent geese; but not so much in a figure as the gray geese, and, I observed, have a cry which I can only describe by manufacturing and twice repeating the word "kirrit.” — These geese are between the size of the two others, and are very little better eating than the gray ones. Their breasts are barred, like a pattern for a waistcoat; and seldom two alike (another good excuse for the tailor!) – They take a tremendously hard blow; and if not well shot, will recover after being knocked fairly down, and then fly away for miles.

Hudson's Bay is the grand depôt for geese of this description.

GODWITS.

There are seven sorts of godwits, including the small redshank. In my previous editions, I said eight.

The "red godwit" was spoken of as a delicious and scarce bird; and I observed that I had killed several of them on the coast of Kent; but always considered the gray godwit as the best worth shooting. But here, Mr.

Leadbeater told me, we have all been in the dark again! The red godwit is no more nor less than the gray godwit in his summer jacket. These birds, like huzzars, have a summer dress and a winter dress, and have thus outmanœuvred the logic of our generals in zoology. There are many birds which change their plumage in like manner, though perhaps not so much as these. My remark, as to the gray godwit being best, was an excusable error, because all birds eat better in winter than in summer. There is no great art required to kill godwits. In sharp easterly winds they are scattered on the shores, and in spring they may be easily shot when flying about in the marshes. In very severe winters they sometimes disappear, (as they did in the hard weather of 1838,) and, I suppose, go farther westward.

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1844. I have now to add another article on godwits which is somewhat at variance with what I had before written, as well as with the foregoing opinion of modern ornithologists. On the 16th of May, 1842, I observed a constant flight of birds coming from the westward, against a strong easterly wind. They were in flocks, varying in number from about a dozen to near 100 in each flock. The gunners and boatmen, at Keyhaven, called them "titterel," which is one of the vulgar names for whimbrel; and said that they never came, except in April and May; and then only against an easterly wind, and were therefore, like the coots when on the coast, considered as "windward-birds." As my gunning-gear, punts, &c., were of course all laid up in store, at this time of year, I resolved on going after some hundreds, that had pitched along the channel's edge, with merely an old hack-punt, and a single shoulder gun. But as every soul in the place

was off, that day, to the Whit-Monday-club, and my winter man, Read, was engaged with his fishing and prawnpotting all the next morning, it was not till the afternoon of Whit-Tuesday that I could get afloat. I then fell in with these birds, which instead of being whimbrels, as erroneously supposed, proved to be all godwits! Some gray, as we find them in winter, and others red, which our modern naturalists, in opposition to Bewick and other authors, pronounce to be the summer plumage of the same bird. But I should observe that the gray godwits were nearly double the size of the red godwits, and had beaks much larger and longer; and that, out of above twenty couple, which I brought home, there was not one young bird among them. They were so easy of access that, had I turned out, for the whole day, with my large double stanchion-gun, and a pair of pop-guns, I have no doubt I should have bagged at least 150 couple! The next day these birds were nearly all gone; and the day after there was not one to be seen. Here I give a plain statement of facts for the perusal of those interested in natural history.

GREBES.

There are seven sorts, including the little river dobchick. These birds, in evading the flash of a gun, are even quicker than the divers.

The large grebes are worth shooting for the sake of their skins, which make excellent tippets and travelling

caps.

GROUSE.

There are three kinds of grouse, exclusive of the wood grouse, or capercaile, a Swedish bird, that is given in

Bewick as having formerly been known to visit this country; the same species of which so many are brought to London from Norway, and sold at the poulterers', sometimes for a sovereign each, by the name of kappercally. The natives, just before the breeding season, entice these birds, by an imitation of their call, towards an ambush, from which they shoot them.

BLACK GROUSE, or BLACK COCK. Tetrao Tetrix. Le Coq de bruyère, à queue fourchue.

To shoot a black cock (in the winter), when he becomes wild, you should wait near, or in the direction of the larch firs, to which he flies to perch; and send some one round to drive him from the stubble, where, about sunrise, the black-game may be seen feeding like rooks. In the North, &c., the female of this species is called gray-hen, but in the New Forest, both male and female are collectively named heath-pouts.

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The black-game rise somewhat like a young pheasant, and are, I conceive, to one divested of anxiety, and in good nerve, easy birds to shoot:- more so than a grouse or partridge.

BLACK-GAME SHOOTING ON THE BORDERS OF HANTS AND DORSET.

At the commencement of the season, the black-game here lie tolerably well, and particularly if the weather is so hot as to drive them down to the bogs. The gray-hen generally remains with the pack, which seldom consists of more than five or six birds. Nine or ten are considered a very large pack, except in winter, when the cock birds

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