430 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



occurred is worth relating as illustrative of the speed 

 at which wildfowl fly. A string- of eight geese came 

 straight overhead, rather high. I shot at the leader, 

 aiming, I thought, well ahead ; yet apparently missed. 

 With the left, I hit another hard (he eventually fell 

 dead), and while marking this second bird, flop fell 

 a goose, stone-dead, in the shallow water close by ! 

 My boatman afterwards told me that the first shot had 

 killed the last but one in the string of eight geese ! 



Seven of these nine geese were in that wing-barred 

 plumage that indicates immaturity ; and during the 

 following day I secured with the punt-gun two fair shots 

 at geese, the great majority of those bagged being also 

 young birds with barred wing-coverts. As a rule the 

 proportion of young to old, on this coast, is just the 

 reverse, and it was evident that a quite unusual influx of 

 the former had taken place at the date named. Their 

 being strangers, newly arrived, partially explained their 

 persistent flighting about midday. 



In January 1893 eight wild swans took up their 

 quarters on some marshy land known as Boldon Flats, 

 midway between the large towns of Newcastle and 

 Sunderland, and being in full view of the railway, along 

 which frequent trains were passing, attracted considerable 

 attention. Discussions occurred in the newspapers as to 

 whether the swans were wild or tame ; and on February 

 10th, a local paper sent a representative to ask my opinion. 

 I told him that the swans were wild, and that the fact 

 would shortly be proved by this sign :- — That within 

 hventy-four hours of the first steamer entering Copen- 

 hagen (then closed by ice), the swans would disappear. 

 Three weeks later, the prophecy was fulfilled to an hour : 

 for on Thursday, March 2nd, the ice broke up in the 



