182 SHOOTING THE GOOSE 



may betimes indulge in a short ' nap,' the sentinels 

 can usually be relied on to recognise any threatening 

 danger. 



Owing to their gregarious habits some phenomenal 

 shots have been made at brent by punt-gunners. 

 The Essex Blackwater, for instance, which has long 

 been celebrated as a haunt for geese, furnishes an 

 illustration of the immense numbers which are occa- 

 sionally killed on the coast. On this fine estuary the 

 gunners usually combine their chances in making a 

 descent on the geese, and fire at them by signal. 

 Incredible though it may seem, several hundred birds 

 have been obtained by the simultaneous discharge of 

 a number of big guns at them by night when massed 

 on the mudflats at the mouth of the Blackwater. In 

 Christy's ' Birds of Essex ' the author gives a detailed 

 description of the way in which these marvellous 

 shots were achieved. The late Colonel Russell, he 

 says, who was an accomplished and enthusiastic 

 punter, almost invariably took command of the flotilla 

 when engaged in these exciting operations. 



In the Cromarty Firth, Mr. J. G. Millais states 

 that some years ago one gunner bagged in six weeks 

 i, 800 of these fine fowl, and, more recently, another 

 gunner killed two hundred in a week. It must be 

 remembered, however, that such bags are rarely made 



