WILDFOWL OF THE NORTH-EAST COAST 291 



casting's — as many as fifty to a hundred in the square 

 yard. Out beyond these fiats to seaward, and separating - 

 them from the open sea, there lies, in most harbours, the 

 sand-bar, a region of a different character, great part of 

 which is never covered by the tide — and of which more 

 anon. 



Thus, wildfowl-resorts may be roughly divided into 

 three main regions, each of widely different features — 

 (i) The mud-flats, or "slakes," as they are called for 

 distinction ; (2) the tidal sand-flats ; and (3) the non-tidal 

 sand-bar. 



To see wildfowl in real abundance, one musy 

 select the hardest weather of mid-winter ; this is, more- 

 over, the time to get them. Severe frost, it is well 

 known, has a deadening, or soporific effect on all (or 

 nearly all) fowl, rendering them less alert to threatening- 

 dangers, and it also produces certain changes in their 

 normal habits, engendered by the altered climatic con- 

 ditions and the consequent difficulty in obtaining food. 

 Mallard and wigeon, for example, will, under these 

 conditions, forsake their regular nocturnal habits and 

 resort by day to the oozes and feeding-grounds. Here 

 they are, then, comparatively easy of approach, especially 

 the mallard, on which severe cold produces exceptional 

 effect. Small "paddlings" of six or eight to a dozen may 

 be approached in a gunning-punt within fifty yards, 

 sitting apparently fast asleep among - the ice, and with 

 their bills snugly tucked away among their back-feathers. 

 Many of these modifications of the habits of wildfowl 

 during severe weather, and especially the precise causes 

 which tend to produce them, form an interesting subject 

 for investigation. 



The sand-flats, just described, afford one main factor 



