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Rake's eyes were telescopic and microscopic; moreover, they had been trained to know such little signs as a marsh from a hen harrier in full flight, by the length of wing and tail, and a widgeon or a coot from a mallard or a teal, by the depth each swam out of the water. Gray and foggy as it was, and high as was the gorse, Rake recognized his born-foe Willon.
I had a presentiment that they would find none, so kept the camera and went off to the Lake a mile west, and there made drawings of some tracks, took photos, etc., and on the lake saw about twenty-five pairs of ducks, identified Whitewinged Scoter, Pintail, Green-winged Teal, and Loon. I also watched the manoeuvres of a courting Peetweet.
Netting birds remains to be described, and is the most destructive mode of taking them of any that is practised. Geese, ducks, teal, widgeons, shags, pelicans, pigeons, and others are procured in this way. A strong cord is then passed through the meshes of one end, and tied at both extremes of the net.
Captain S. had some work to finish, and my elephant and bearer had not arrived, so our magistrate and myself walked down to the sandbanks, and amused ourselves for an hour shooting sandpipers and plover; we also shot a pair of mallard and a couple of teal, and then went back to the tents, and were soon busily discussing a hunter's breakfast.
Do you not, by chance, mean to touch the teal?" "Certainly." "Well, then " "Wait." And the poet rummaged in his pocket, and drew out a piece of brass, oblong, quadrangular, about a line in thickness, and an inch and a half in length.
Couch told me was the only one he had had through his hands whilst in Guernsey; and Captain Hubbach writes me word that he shot one in Alderney in January, 1863. I have never seen it in the Guernsey market, like the Wild Duck and Teal. Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen, a male in full plumage, in the Museum.
This he handed up to me, and it was not much the worse for the butting it had got. The bulls were still feeding quietly, apparently having forgot all about us. "I say, Harry, I think some biscuits, and rum and water, would not be bad things with our steaks, not to speak of the teal," said he, looking up at me. "What do you advise? May I venture to run for the satchels and some of the game?"
Here, too, were flocks of black duck and teal, and as you rode past, the merry little snipe would rise from the water's edge, and whisk away like lightning through the trees. Altogether a pleasant woodland creek, alongside of which, under the mighty box-trees, ran a sandy road, bordered with deep beds of bracken fern, which led from Baroona of the Buckleys to Toonarbin of the Hawkers.
That night they ate the last of their provisions, and slept unmolested by the prowling things that haunt the gloom of the forest. On the next day some of the warriors hunted stags, and others lay in rushes by a neighbouring lake and shot arrows at water-fowl. One stag was killed, and some geese, and several teal.
Overhead a red squirrel barked and frisked, and across the pale-blue sky, feathered nomads, teal or mallard, moved swiftly en echelon, their quivering pinions flashing like silver, as they fled southward. On a distant hillside cattle browsed, and sheep wandered; and the drowsy tinkle of bells, as the herd wended homeward, seemed a nocturne of rest, for the closing day.
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