WILD-FOWL: GEESE 195 



the carriage-windows they have been noticed feeding 

 within a hundred yards of the metals ; when the geese 

 would simply look up at the passing train, and recom- 

 mence feeding. Once off the Holkham marshes, how- 

 ever, they are wary enough, for they seldom alight on 

 the Wells marshes to the eastward of their sanctuary, as 

 this is free ground, and consequently dangerous for them. 

 From Holkham marsh the great flocks of geese are con- 

 stantly passing and repassing to the stubbles inland ; 

 their grand sonorous note as they move in immense 

 ^-shaped battalions overhead well out of gun-shot is 

 constantly to be heard, and is a pleasing and familiar 

 sound in that district during the autumn months. The 

 geese do not restrict themselves to the Holkham 

 meadows and inland stubbles entirely, for a considerable 

 portion of each day is passed upon the sand-banks 

 which are exposed for miles at low water along that 

 part of the Norfolk coast. On these sands, where the 

 geese huddle together in close groups, preening their 

 feathers, washing themselves, and gabbling to any 

 extent, they are as safe from the punt-gunner as when 

 residing in their summer haunts in the Arctic regions. 

 On winter nights, when wind and tide and moon are 

 favourable, some of the more adventurous gunners of 

 the neighbouring town of Wells dig pits in the sand 

 in order to intercept the geese as they leave the sand- 

 banks on the rising of the tide. For this work a good 

 moon, a spring-tide to entirely cover the sand-banks, 

 and a westerly wind to cause the geese to fly low 

 are needed to ensure success. Although the Holkham 

 geese would appear to be subjected to a good deal of out- 

 side persecution at the hands of the gunners and bird- 

 netters of the locality, they manage to come through the 



