CHAPTER NINETEEN WILD GEESE 



the humid nature of my locale; the bird appeared rather 

 puzzled by my appearance, and my grey clothes not mak- 

 ing much show in the rushy ground and withered herbage 

 which I was lyingin, she contented herselfwith giving some 

 private signal to the rest, which brought them all at a quick 

 run up to her side, where they stood looking about them, 

 undecided whether to fly or not. I was about two hundred 

 yards from the birds; we remained in this manner for, I dare 

 say, five minutes, the birds appearing on the pointof taking 

 wing during the whole time: suddenly I heard a shout be- 

 hind the birds, and they instantly rose in confusion and flew 

 directly towards me. As soon as they were over my head I 

 stood up: the effect of my sudden appearance was to make 

 them break their line and fly straight away from me in all 

 directions, thus giving me what I wanted, shots at them 

 when flying away from me, in which case they are easy to 

 kill. Mycartridgestoldwith good effect, and I killed a brace, 

 one dropping perfectly dead and the other extending her 

 wings and gradually sinking, till she fell on thetopofa furze- 

 bush three or four hundred yards off, where I found her 

 lying quite dead. It appeared that Simon, seeing that the 

 birds had observed me, ran round them, and then setting up 

 ashoutjhad luckily driven them nolens volens over my head. 

 They were the white-fronted goose, with pure white spots 

 on their foreheads. About three weeks after this time, at 

 the end of March, large flights of grey geese appear here, 

 feeding on the fresh-sown oats, barley, and peas durino- the 

 day, and passing the night on the sands of the bay, whither 

 they always repair soon after sunset. 



I had passed a great part of several days in endeavour- 

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