28 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



in the kingdom can the grey geese be seen to better 

 advantage, despite the fact that to this spot the wild- 

 fowler comes annually in numbers, and that many of 

 the natives, even the poorest, possess a gun and are 

 always on the look-out for geese. The birds come in 

 undiminished numbers, probably because they find here 

 the one green spot on which they can repose in compara- 

 tive safety. This spot is the reclaimed marsh or 

 meadowland which I have mentioned as lying between 

 the Wells embankment and Holkham. It is not a per- 

 fect sanctuary, since the geese are shot a few times 

 during the winter by the lord of the manor and his 

 guests; but the dangerous days are so few and far be- 

 tween at this place that the geese have come to regard 

 it as a safe refuge, and are accustomed to congregate 

 daily in large numbers, two or three thousand or more 

 being often seen together. 



How intelligent these noble birds are! The whole 

 human population of the country round are against 

 them, waiting for them morning and evening in various 

 hiding-places to shoot them down as they pass over- 

 head to and from the sea. This incessant persecution 

 had made them the wariest of all wild birds and most 

 difficult to approach. Yet here, where their enemies 

 are most numerous, where they keep the sharpest watch 

 when feeding and roosting, and when on the wing fly 

 high to keep out of range of those who lie in wait 

 for them — on this one green spot they drop down to 

 rest and feed by the hour and pay but the slightest at- 

 tention to the human form and the sights and sounds 



