342 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



flight ; close over three prostrate puntsmen passed their 

 loudly-gaggling columns, apparently quite unconscious 

 of danger, for in the open water just outside our 

 unseen craft they splash down with wheeling flight and 

 graceful evolution, describing in their descent a thousand 

 eddying, opposing circles, concentric, eccentric, and elliptic. 

 The position of the rival gunners was now reversed, for 

 while the two "early birds "had to extricate themselves, 

 stern-first, from the creeks, we were in position for 

 immediate action. Luck had stepped in to help where 

 foresight failed! The geese sat very scatteredly, so 

 much so that while occupying acres of water they did not 

 offer at any single point a dense mass on which to direct 

 the stanchion-gun. In a few minutes we were close on 

 their flank- — already amongst the rearmost stragglers, 

 and within range of the main line, when they again rose, 

 suddenly and spontaneously as before. A shot as they 

 rose would probably have secured four or five ; but I 

 refrained, for the geese were only shifting their quarters, 

 and almost immediately pitched again on the mud-edge, 

 within a quarter-of-a-mile. Once more we "set in" 

 towards them : again we reach the fatal range, and ere 

 they rise the big muzzle yawns within a hundred yards of a 

 fairly thick crowd. Then the clamour of their departure 

 resounded : they had just risen clear of the mud, when the 

 thunder of the stanchion-gun booms over the watery waste. 

 Back rebounds the punt, and through the cloud of smoke 

 we see a deadly result ; their line is broken, and the wide 

 gap cut by ten oz. of BB is strewn with spoils. Ten geese 

 fall on the mud, another, hard hit, slants obliquely down- 

 wards, while from the retreating host a pair more of 

 "droppers" turn over, and fall dead on the sea. Now 

 follows a lively quarter-of-an-hour with the cripples, and 



