432 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



please," whispered L., meaning- that we were already 

 within shot ; but as the birds showed no sign of going, 

 I held on, and only pulled when I believed I had six 

 geese within seventy or eighty yards, and safe as rats 

 in a trap. But when I saw the BB ploughing the 

 still surface all too short, and beyond it twelve huge 

 pinions thrashing the sea, we realised, too late, our mis- 

 take. They were not geese, but six swans that in the bad 

 light against the sun had looked dark : four of the six 

 being, in fact, cygnets (which are brownish-coloured), 

 partly explained the mistake, while their bulk had com- 

 pletely deceived in calculating the distance, for we now 

 saw they were quite 1 20 yards away. As a set-off to this 

 bungle, we made one pretty shot. Some eighteen mer- 

 gansers were diving along the scap - heads : as we 

 approached they kept rising in twos and threes, till only 

 a single pair remained, and at very long range. As these 

 "lifted," I pulled and bagged both — two lovely drakes 

 with long double crests. 



October 21 (1890). — Homeward-bound at dawn, in 

 dense sea-fog, waxing alternately thicker and clearer. 

 Observed something big looming through the mist, which 

 could only be grey-geese. The strengthening light pre- 

 sently revealed a company of seventy or eighty ; 

 but we lay opposite the thin end thereof. Unluckily 

 the tide was spent and the boat was already fast on 

 clusters of mussels, fore and aft ; nothing remained 

 but to take them as we lay, and four pink-footed geese 

 rolled over, dead. The tides being the worst of the 

 neaps, and held back, moreover, by a breeze outside, the 

 sandy flat on which these geese had roosted had never 

 been covered, hence they had stood dry-foot all night. 



February 28, 1896. — 'While walking across the saltings 



