a steady aim, he let drive. When the smoke cleared away, there was the scoter a little farther down, as busy as ever: he had ducked the flash. A man may consider himself very fortunate if he gets a scoter at the first shot when he is diving.

Where a large quantity of salt-water herbage flourishes, it is surprising how many that are, comparatively speaking, inland birds seek the shore. Woodcocks, snipe, wild-ducks, moor-hens, coots, teal, skylarks in great flocks, dabchicks, come to all the tide-pools. Kingfishers are very common; of thrushes, redwings, and fieldfares there will be a few, and the herons are sure to come. The tide leaves something for all, if the poor birds are not too weak to get it. A long length of fishing-net will then bag a vast number of all sorts, if used rightly; and the sons of the coast guards with whom Den associated could use them to perfection. He was a happy youth, though often straitened in his own home, owing to his parents' stern, religious prejudices, and their not over-ample means; but his knowledge of the fowl and, indeed, of all outdoor life-and his readiness and reputation for pluck where danger was concerned, made him a rare favourite with both fishers and fowlers; and so there was always a place for him amongst them, and a gun or fishing-line whenever he wanted it. That winter there

was too much that interested him in the ways of the wild-fowl, and the straits they were put to, for him to think of sport. The coast being a flat one, the water was often frozen before it could properly ebb off the ooze; there was a glittering sheet of ice spread for miles, which covered the sea-grass and other marine productions. The next tide or tides made matters worse, for the sheet of ice beneath the water was not melted at the flow, but got much thicker with the ebb of the tide, binding fast all below it. This was not of so much. moment as long as the fowl could keep to the open sea, for the waves did not let the ice form on the beach, and they found a great quantity of floating grass that had been torn up from the different grass-beds and borne out seawards. They did not mind the water being moderately rough either, for the fowl rise up and down like so many corks. At such times the waders keep the beachline as much as they possibly can. But all this is altered when the storms come howling over the waste of waters; then they must find shelter, or be dashed on the shore. They know when the storm is brewing in good time, generally; and, before it bursts, seek safety in the creeks. That was Den's time for observation. The ice broke up on the ooze after a few fierce tides, the outcome of the storm, had rushed up, and the masses whirled,

crashed, and ground in all directions. It was fearful weather, but the diving-ducks must have food if they can possibly get it; and there the lad watched them diving and coming to the surface again between the blocks of floating ice. The birds got poor after a week or two of rough weather, and were then of very little use either as specimens for the bird-preserver or to eat. Their plumage looked water-washed and draggled.

One might think it impossible for water-fowl to get drowned, especially the divers, and yet they frequently are; for when they are floating ten, fifteen, or twenty miles out at sea, and the storm bursts on them in all its fury before they can reach a lee shore, they get dashed down on the waves as if they were so many gnats instead of strong, swiftwinged birds; and they are killed by the blows they receive from the waves they have been wont to ride over in such joyous confidence. More than that, they are unable to keep their plumage in its proper condition, and, in spite of the old saw about water running off a duck's back, they soon get wet through, and so drown in the most miserable manner. Then they are washed on shore, to become the prey of all the gulls and hooded crows about the place. The winged scavengers of the coast-line seem to gather together over such spoil in an in

credibly quick fashion; it does not lie long on the shore. Many, in fact, get torn in pieces by the huge dog-fish as they float in.

It was a blessed relief to man and bird and beast when that hard winter gave way to the gentler gales that ushered in the spring.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BAILIFFS OF THE MARSHLANDS.

sons.

IN the days of Denzil's youth the marshlands were the home-the breeding-place—of fever and ague. Those scourges of the flats visited the dwellers constantly, more or less severely according to the seaSometimes, after a spell of hot weather, the wind would change to a colder quarter and send the thick mists rolling over the flats charged with all the dread exhalations of the swamps. Then, not only did the dwellers on the marshes suffer, but the inhabitants of the fishing villages as well. A thick cold mist enveloped all the district.

One evening Den came home from an expedition with the fishers that had lasted for some days, and he found father, mother, and two brothers all down with fever and ague. The next day he was stricken himself, and the whole family lay helpless. news soon reached the fishing quarter that the fever

The