88 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



shelter. Now is the fowler's chance. He selects a spot in the 

 line of flight and takes toll of the passing birds. All the flocks, 

 it is remarkable to state, although they are undoubtedly out of 

 sight of each other, usually fly the same route ; thus, once 

 hitting off the correct line of flight, the fowler is in clover. 

 When the ducks, after being buffeted for days at sea, take to 

 sheltering in the bays, the shooter whose stand is in their line 

 of flight may expect good sport. At such times duck (the 

 surface-feeders, such as mallard, widgeon, and teal) readily cross 

 headlands and points on the coast. The reason all go in the 

 one direction is probably due to their seeking shelter in the 

 same quarter. To a degree this is much the same with night- 

 flighting, when, of course, the duck are making for the same 

 feeding ground. Shore-bird flighting may be enjoyed when 

 the weather is beautifully calm, for in the case of these birds 

 it is a matter of migration pure and simple. Such sport is 

 occasionally secured miles from a point of the coast which these 

 birds haunt daily. Possibly the flights of shore-birds which 

 pass, sometimes for days together, along a coast, are migrants 

 which have reached our shores from across the sea, and are 

 making alongshore to the nearest suitable quarter. Day- 

 flighting at plover (golden and green) often occurs after or at 

 the beginning of a hard frost. No doubt the plover are then 

 changing quarters. At such times very large bags have been 

 made, for as things often turn out, the plover fly incessantly in 

 small trips from daylight until dark. 



With regard to migratory birds, we might enjoy much more 

 sport at these were it not for the fact that many migrate at 

 night, and it is only when they choose or happen to move by 

 day that we meet with them. On the coast one never knows 

 what may be met with. I have known a flight of wood-pigeons 

 to last a week, during which time one gunner alone bagged 

 a hundred and forty. At the migration season of the year, 

 especially November, owls, hawks, crows, wood-pigeon, in- 



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