190 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



or less, according" as the winter is severe or mild. They are strong- 

 on the wing", moving" through the air in single and angular line of 

 flight. They are difficult birds to kill, being generally wild and 

 xmapproachable, and requiring" hard hitting" to bring them down, so 

 thickly coated are they with feathers. 



The sportsman who would kill them should use large shot, and 

 reserve his fire until they take wing*. 



These birds do not proceed so far inland as grey-geese, and seldom 

 alight in corn fields — their favourite resoz-ts being" fens, marshes, and 

 rivers near the sea-coast, where they are often shot by puntmen, 

 though more frequently by means of a swivel-gun and small sailing" 

 vessel.* 



The pink-footed goose ( Anser phcenicopusj is a very beautiful 

 bird, and has been the subject of much discussion of late years among 

 naturalists and ornithologists. 



The sportsman will invariably find these birds so wary, that it is 

 difficult to get withfn range : they appear remarkably watchful, and 

 are awake to every suspicious movement or noise on the part of 

 human being. The punter's best skill is required, and the sailing" 

 sportsman must use his best cunning to get at them. They are not 

 very abundant, but in sharp winters there are generally a few killed 

 on the coast. 



* Col. Hawker speaks of these birds as quite unknown to the gunners of the 

 Hampshire coast till the year 1830 ; and adds, that he has seen none there since. 

 My own experience of ^vild-fowUng does not carry me back so far as 1830, but so 

 long as I have felt interested in the sport, I have, every winter, met ivith some of these 

 birds on the eastern coast. The inference to be dravra from Col. Hawker's assertion 

 would therefore seem to be, that it is only in the severest winters they visit the 

 south coast. 



