GOOSE. NATATORES. ANSER. 273 



be heard at a great distance, and has not unaptly been com- 

 pared (when so heard) to the cry of a pack of hounds. 

 They are at all times extremely watchful, and can only be 

 approached within gunshot by the person of the shooter 

 being concealed. This is effected in the southern parts of 

 the kingdom by means of a flat-bottomed boat, so built as 

 to draw very little water, and whose gunwale barely rises 

 above the surface, armed with a large fowling-piece, that 

 traverses the half-deck upon a swivel. In this boat the 

 fowler lies flat, and directs its motion by a paddle or small 

 oar, till he comes within range of the flock ; when he fires, 

 either as they float upon the water, or just as they rise. 

 Great havoc is sometimes made in this way, not only amongst 

 the Brent Geese, but amongst Widgeon, and other kinds of 

 wild fowl, as we learn from Colonel HAWKER'S amusing 

 treatise, to which I refer my readers, and where they will 

 find every direction necessary for this particular kind of 

 sporting *. Previous to this mode of shooting being adopt- 

 ed, all the Brent Geese, and different species of Ducks upon 

 our northern coast, were killed by moonlight, by the fowlers 

 placing themselves in various parts of the lake, seated on a 

 bundle of straw, and patiently waiting for the approach of 

 the wild fowl, as they flew about in quest of feeding places. 

 The destruction, however, in this way was very limited ; 

 the number that fell to the gun of an individual during the 

 whole season perhaps did not equal the fruits of a single 

 day's sport with the boat and its swivel gun. Like the rest 

 of the genus, the Brent Goose never dives in search of food; 

 but that this does not arise from any incapability of submer- 

 sion, as has been supposed, is evident from the ease with 

 which it plunges, and the great distance it can go under wa- 



Upon the Holy Island sandy flats, where the above method was in- 

 deed, about two years ago, by a man from the Norfolk coast, I am 



credibly informed that twenty-two Brent Geese were killed and secured 



at one discharge during this season, 1831. 



VOL. II. S 



