188 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



"there's nine tofjether, all of a clarap ! " But I did not 

 intend spending a winter's night at sea for a possible nine, 

 and decided to hold on and await the more promising chance 

 when the rising tide should have concentrated these scattered 

 units into solid battalions. Moreover, except for a really 

 heavy shot. I was reluctant to dispel the charm of the wild 

 sounds and sights around us. 



Seldom, indeed, is it possible to enjoy to such advantage 

 the wilder scenes of nature, as on these occasions fall to the 

 lot of the midnight fowler. All around him throng these 

 creatures that, of all creation, most dread the human pres- 

 ence. Now the ooze and the moonlit water ahead are alive 

 with sprightly, active forms, all feeding, playing and revel- 

 ling in fancied security ; overhead, the dark skies reverberate 

 with the swish, swish of strong pinions as fresh "trips" 

 pass and rc-pass above. The variety of bird-notes and their 

 musical intonations, to an appreciative ear, offer no small 

 compensation for the hardships or discomforts of the situa- 

 tion, and also for a slight temporary restraint of the spirit 

 of bloodthirstiness. From far and near along the flats re- 

 sounds a continuous running refrain of blended individual 

 voices. Then, at shortly-recurring intervals, the w'hole host 

 join, for a few seconds, in one united chorus from thousands 

 of throats ; and this is followed by a few seconds of com- 

 parative silence. 



Most kinds of wildfowl are distinguishable by their notes, 

 and their concert serves to pass away those dark hours before 

 the dawn. There is the low soliloquy of the Mallard drake, 

 and the far noisier quacking of his wife ; the strange half- 

 " purr," half-growl of the Wigeon ducks, the long-drawn 

 " whee-you " of the drakes. Even the gentle splashing of 

 their bills as they dabble in the ooze is distinctly audible. 

 All these and many others are well known — as familiar to 

 the fowler as the bo'sun's pipe to a sailor. Then there is 

 an almost infinite variety of notes — sharp, shrill whistles, 

 low piping calls and undulated growls — which he knows pro- 

 ceed from the various wading birds ; but to allocate each of 

 these precisely requires more attention than the average 

 fowler cares to bestow on these, to him, unimportant birds. 



