WILDFOWL OF THE NORTH-EAST COAST 289 



while on our coasts, and to the broad expanses of 

 mud and ooze whereon it grows, they will constantly 

 resort, despite all the artifices of the fowler. Here, 

 roughly speaking - , the geese feed by day and the ducks 

 by night, and will continue to do so so long as such 

 places continue to exist. 



Such is the luxuriance of this sea-grass that over 

 thousands of acres its densely thick fronds, each measur- 

 ing four or five feet in length, completely cover the 

 whole surface of the ooze as closely as grass grows in 

 a meadow. The depth and rich quality of the mud 

 itself are favourable to this exuberant fertility, both 

 of the Zostera and of many other alga^ and marine 

 plants which grow on its surface. Among these is 

 the marsh-samphire {Sa/uorma kerbacea), which alone 

 stands upright, not unlike an equisetum, but is not 

 relished by wildfowl. The profusion and variety of 

 marine vegetation which flourishes in such situations 

 is, indeed, as great as that which clothes the inland 

 fields and fells : and it is this which attracts the wild- 

 fowl to our coasts. Yet how universal is the error 

 that wildfowl live on fish. "What can you do with 

 these ducks and geese ; surely they must be very fishy ? " 

 are the almost invariable questions asked, often by 

 people who should know better. The food of the game- 

 ducks and geese is quite as exclusively vegetable as 

 is that of the game-birds themselves. 



When cruising about in these "salt-slakes," one soon 

 observes that they consist of two different materials, quite 

 separate, and each possessing very distinct characteristics. 

 The two materials are mud and sand. On the former 

 alone grows the Zostera, and to it, therefore, resort the 

 flat-billed fowl — ducks and geese. But the sand-flats 



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