ANATID.^— GEESE. 193 



course in the winter time, if he is correct in what he sa3^s, which is doubtful. 

 The Rev. J. C. Atkinson writes (36. 139) that it is 



" by far the most numerous of all the Geese which visit our shores in winter, 

 as it is also the least. 1 have seen it in inconceivable numbers on the Essex coast 

 in hard winters, and the numbers reported to have been killed at one discharge of 

 a heavy punt-gun seem simply incredible. In the very hard and long-continued 

 winter of 1837-8, I saw the ice which, in broken fragments of four or five feet 

 square by three or four inches thick, covered the whole estuary of the Blackwater 

 at Tollesbury (a space of very considerable width), black with them during high 

 water. The expression made use of by one of the sea-faring men of the neigh- 

 bourhood was, ' There are acres of 'em.' " 



The late Col. Russell also informed Mr. Fitch that he had at times seen them 

 on the Essex coast in " numbers sufficiently large to completel}' cover a ten-acre 

 field." Mr. Fitch himself has frequently seen them at the mouth of the Black- 

 water in clouds, consisting of immense numbers. Their short hoarse cough is 

 very remarkable, and has already been alluded to (p. 49.) 



In 1871, according to Mr. Smee (34. 2603), the first were seen at the mouth 

 of the. Thames in the second week of October. Large flocks, some of which 

 numbered over 200 birds, afterwards frequented the mud-flats about the Blacktail 

 and Nore Sands. Such flocks had not been seen there for ten years and 

 the gunners made a good living out of them. On March 24, a large flock^ 

 evidently migrating, passed over high up and in a N.E. direction, none having 

 then been seen for three weeks. During Jan., 1871, Brent Geese were also seen 

 in extraordinar}' numbers on the Main, and it is recorded (29. Feb. 4) that " sixteeiv 

 punters went together after a flock, and fired at it simultaneously at a given signal 

 from their leader. Fourteen guns went off, two having missed fire, and 471 

 birds were bagged." "^ 



Many other enormous " bags " of these birds have been from time to time 

 made on the Essex coast, and some of the reports as to the numbers shot at 

 one time, which are current among the gunners, marshmen, punters, and others 

 dwelling on our shores, are almost beyond belief. The largest bag I ever 

 heard of on reliable authority, as being made at one time, was on Dengie 

 Flats, one very sharp winter about thirty years ago (? i860). Mr. John 

 Basham, jun., of Maldon, my informant, says that his father, the late Col. Russell, 

 and thirt}' other gunners — thirty-two in all, under a recognised leader, as is the 

 custom on these occasions — approached a very large flock of Geese, and, all firing 

 together, at a given signal from their leader, bagged and shared equally between 

 them (as is customary) no less than an average of twenty-two Geese apiece, or 704 

 altogether, beside a great number more which were not obtained or were concealed 

 dishonestly by some of the shooters. The largest " shoot," however, in which Mr. 

 Basham ever personally took part was, he tells me, some twenty }-ears or so ago, 

 when eighteen punters, including himself, under the leadership of a gunner named 

 James Chaney, fired simultaneously at an enormous congregation of Geese 

 collected together, one bright moonlight night, on the muds of the St. Peter's 

 Flats; off Bradwell Chapel, obtaining as share twenty birds apiece, or 3G0 in 

 all. One gun missed fire, but, as usual, all shared alike. On this occasion 

 the punts were allowed to drift onwards with the tide. The biggest bag, made at 

 a single shot, John Basham ever heard of was, he tells me, made about twent}^- 

 five years ago by a gunner (now deceased), known as " Old Stubbins," of Maldon, 

 who killed no less than fifty Geese at the mouth of Thurslett Creek, in Tollesbury 

 Parish, by a single discharge of his large punt gun, which weapon Was familiarly 



b 



