BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 
working hard for every bird and displaying 
Spartan indifference to the rigours of wintry 
weather. To hardy sportsmen of their type, 
wildfowl offer red-letter days with punt or 
shoulder guns, not to be dreamt of under the 
segis of the gamekeeper. 
In this country, at any rate, we associate 
the V-shaped companies of wigeon and 
gaggles of geese with an ice-bound landscape, 
though in exceptional years, even where 
they no longer stay to breed, these night- 
flying northerners linger to the coming of 
spring, and Hawker noticed the curious 
apparition of grey geese and swallows in 
company on the first day of April, 1839. 
This wedge formation of flight over land and 
sea is not only peculiar to these waterfowl, 
but is not apparently adopted by any other 
long distance migrants. No satisfactory 
explanation of their preference for flying in 
this order has been found, but it is thought to 
lessen the air resistance, which must be a 
consideration for these short-pinioned fowl 
that weigh heavy in proportion to their dis- 
placement and at the same time lack the 
tremendous spread of wing that enables the 
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