196 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



Probably no other creature in existence is wilder than the 

 " gun-shy, punt-avoiding " Brent Goose. In open weather 

 they are so utterly inaccessible that a whole season may go 

 by without a single satisfactory shot being obtained, even 

 where punters are numerous and the Geese thousands strong. 

 Times without number one may "set" to them, but ere 

 they are fairly in sight — ere one's eye can clearly dis- 

 tinguish their thin black line from the flat and featureless 

 wastes — they are up ! The distance at which these keen- 

 eyed birds can discern so small and insignificant an object 

 as a gunning-punt " end-on," is truly amazing. 



Towards evening the Geese recommence feeding ; and so 

 intensely eager are they about sunset to utilize the few 

 remaining minutes, that they then oifer perhaps the most 

 favourable chance to get within shot. The fortunes of many 

 a long blank day have been completely altered, and patient 

 hours of fruitless toil amply rewarded, by a splendid shot 

 the last thing at dusk. 



It is, however, in the hardest weather that the Brents 

 afford right royal sport to those who then have the endur- 

 ance to follow them. Then, when between tides the oozes 

 and salt grasses are all congealed in the iron grip of the frost, 

 the Geese are unable to get a bite during the ebb, and, as the 

 tide flows over the mud, the quantities of drift ice which has 

 been formed in shallow pools or in the stretches of "blown 

 water " driving to and fro in the tide currents, the floes 

 grinding and crashing against each other all over the flats, 

 effectually interferes with their chance of a feed, and makes 

 them less alive than usual to external dangers. Then (after 

 a week or two of such weather) one begins to find the punt 

 drawing nearer in upon them, and, at the short and deadly 

 ranges which are then (and then only) attainable, one reaps 

 an abundant reward for perhaps years of mild seasons, 

 blank days, and numberless failures. 



In approaching Geese (of any kind), as they do not rise 

 vertically, spinning high off" the sea at a single impulse, as 

 Ducks do, but rise horizontally, going a yard or two before 

 they are clear of the trajectory of a punt gun, one's fire 

 should always be reserved till they fly. They are, however, 



