AMONG THE WILD GEESE 341 



shot from the large shoulder-gun stopped four out of the 

 six — all drakes ; lovely objects, with their exquisitely 

 pencilled plumage and bright colours. This was a 

 good beginning, and a mile or so farther up we 

 observed a couple of geese sitting on a dry sand-bank. 

 They were "pensioners," or pricked birds, so we decided 

 to wait till the flowing tide should take us to them, when I 

 killed the pair, right and left, with the cripple-stopper, 

 as they rose off the sea within forty yards. This last 

 acquisition, however, had cost considerable delay — over 

 an hour — and during that time the main bodies of geese 

 had been passing in from the sea, filing off in long, 

 black gaggling skeins to the salt-grasses ahead. And 

 on our arrival thereat, we truly appeared to have good 

 reasons for abusing that unlucky pair of "pensioners," 

 and our own folly in wasting a precious hour in securing 

 them. For there, all congregated on the far-stretching 

 sward of slobby ooze, sat a thousand geese : while two 

 creeks which appeared to converge on their position, 

 were each occupied by a rival gunner! 



How we anathematised our "ill-luck" (as bad judg- 

 ment or carelessness is usually called) needs not be told. 

 Regrets and posthumous wisdom were alike of no avail, 

 and nothing remained but to lie flat and watch the course 

 of events. Gradually, foot by foot, as the flowing tide rose 

 in the creeks, we watched our rivals pushing nearer and 

 nearer to the clamorous phalanx before them. Presently 

 they lay within a gunshot and a half, and their success 

 appeared but a matter of moments. Then a change 

 occurred in the tide of fortune. All at once, and for 

 no visible reason, the thousand pairs of dark pinions 

 were spread, and with sonorous roar the anserine host 

 rose on wing. Directly towards us they shape their 



