282 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



as such places continue to exist, in despite of all that 

 man can do. His persecution, with all the artifices 

 which his ingenuity can devise, has no effect on their 

 numbers, though it modifies many of their habits, as I 

 propose hereafter to show. It should be remembered that 

 twice every twenty-four hours the fowl have secured to them 

 periods of several hours' absolute immunity from molesta- 

 tion by the ebb of the tide ; for then they can feed or 

 rest, in undisturbed peace and security, right out in the 

 centre of miles of mud-fiats which are far too solid to 

 admit the approach of a punt, while yet too soft and 

 "rotten" to bear the weight of a man. 



The staple fowl pursued by punt-gunners on the north- 

 east coast (as in most British waters) in winter, are brent 

 geese by day, mallard and wigeon by night, teal being 

 seldom met with on salt water after their autumnal 

 passage in September and October. Among the minor 

 objects of pursuit are the diving-ducks, chiefly scaup and 

 golden-eye, as well as the larger class of wading bJfds — 

 "hen-footed fowl" I have heard them called — both of 

 which are mostly obtained by day. There* is, however, 

 some variation in the game, according to locality. Thus, 

 while wigeon frequent every considerable estuary which 

 is undisturbed and otherwise suitable to their habits, the 

 geese are far more capricious, frequenting one harbour year 

 after year in very great numbers, while another, perhaps 

 only a few miles away, and apparently similar in its 

 natural features, is never entered by them. 



In order to ascertain what fowl frequent any particular 

 harbour or bay, it is only necessary to watch their 

 "morning flight "on two or three occasions. The whole 

 stock of fowl may then be observed, from a favourable 

 post, in the course of a couple of hours. The time thus 



