336 HABITS OF WIGEON IN THE NIGHT. 



pounds in their pocket, before the end of the season, if 

 not the very first week that it became clear and star- 

 light. 



It is not sufficient, however, to be starlight over head 

 only; we must have it clear also round the horizon, or 

 the birds, as in thick weather, will all disperse, and keep 

 walking away from you in different directions. 



In mild weather, wigeon are generally scattered 

 about, like rooks, till after midnight, unless they be- 

 come concentrated by the flow of the surrounding tide. 

 But in cold weather they sit thick together. 



The first night or two of thaw, after a sharp frost, is 

 the best opportunity for this sport. 



Such is the effect that the change of wind has on 

 the movements of wildfowl, that I am induced, as a 

 specimen, to name the following circumstance. 



I was last season detained in London during three weeks' easterly 

 wind, till, at last, I received a pressing summons from my man, to 

 inform me that the coast was swarming with birds. I directed him, 

 by return of post, to have the punt ready to get afloat at nine (it 

 being high water at ten) the night after I received his epistle. I 

 mounted the coach-box at eight the next morning, hoping to break- 

 fast in London and make a heavy shot at wigeon, at above one hun- 

 dred miles from town, before eleven o'clock the same night ; which, 

 had I gone even one day sooner, I should have been almost sure of 

 doing. But, before we had got half way through our journey, the 

 wind suddenly flew from east to west ! and no sooner had we reached 

 the coast than there came on a tremendous westerly gale and rain, 

 which it was impossible to weather that night. The next morning 

 I had the mortification to see the whole atmosphere darkened with 

 birds that were mounted high in the air, and making the best of their 

 way out of the country. The day before my arrival, my man had 

 killed twenty couple, with a light 45 Ib. stanchion gun ; the second 

 day after, not a fowl was to be seen or heard of !! Again, vice versa, 

 I had once been three weeks on the coast without seeing a bird, and, 



