Page:Colymbia (1873).djvu/186

180 they are compelled by the drying of their wings to drop into the water. We had so well calculated our distance, that the shoal fell right among us, and as they fell, a considerable number were captured by us in the hand-nets, and immediately killed by squeezing the head. The most skilful captured in this way six or eight, and even the least adroit managed to bag two or three. The whole business reminded me of driving partridges or grouse at home, and altogether it was most exciting sport. A shoal once started could not be easily induced to rise again; but as shoals were numerous, we managed in the course of the day to get a very heavy bag, which, on arrival at home, we distributed among our friends, to whom these fish were very acceptable, as they are considered a great delicacy.

Another favourite amusement of the Colymbians is shooting wild-fowl. This they do in the following way. They have a straight tube, about two feet long, and a case full of small arrows, about four inches long. Inserting an arrow into the tube, they cautiously approach any birds that may be sitting on the overhanging branch of a tree, or a projecting point of the reef. When sufficiently near their game, they quietly extrude one end of the tube—the other being between their lips—and when they have got the aim, they blow the arrow sharply through the tube, and in this way the more skilful seldom fail to hit a bird at ten or fifteen yards' distance. I was told that the idea of this method of shooting birds was suggested by that curious fish, the beaked chætodon, whose mouth is prolonged into the form of a tube, which the creature brings cunningly above the water, and levels at any insect that may happen to be basking in the sun on