2;o THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



from over the water, and in a few seconds I made out a 

 black lump of birds coming right on to me. I could hear 

 the measured " swish-swish " of their powerful wings as I 

 put the gun to my shoulder and pulled the trigger. Two 

 geese came with a crash into the reeds close at hand as 

 I tried my hardest to get my feet dragged out of the 

 yielding mud in time to turn and fire at a goose flying 

 just overhead. It was a case of kill or miss, for the bird 

 was certainly not more than 10 yards away, probably not 

 so much, and I found to my sorrow that it was a miss, 

 for the goose went cheerily on. As not a sound came 

 from the two birds cut down by the first discharge, I 

 concluded they were dead, so did not trouble to go after 

 them, as more geese were then moving about in the 

 distance. 



As I had fully expected, the geese were keen to come 

 on the island that night, and ten minutes later there 

 came the clear call-notes from some more of these birds 

 coming my way. This time a little string passed along- 

 side my stand, offering a tolerably easy shot at not more 

 than 30 yards' range, and, with their images clearly figur- 

 ing against the fast-brightening horizon, I had no difficulty 

 in securing a goose with each barrel. Four shots, four 

 geese, and all dead apparently, was not bad for a start, 

 and then I felt glad that I had not accompanied the punt- 

 gunners. There was not, however, much time for reflect- 

 ing on such matters, for the geese, now thoroughly 

 aroused, were moving both up and down the river just 

 off the island. Presently there came along a solitary 

 goose, or rather gander, I thought him to be, judging 

 from his hoarse note, which was uttered at regular 

 intervals with all the precision of a metronome. I just 

 caught a glimpse of this bird as he was passing on the 



