158 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



by day. There is, however, some variation in the sport, ac- 

 cording to locality. Thus, while Wigeon frequent every con- 

 siderable estuary which is undisturbed and otherwise suit- 

 able to their habits, the Geese are far more captious, fre- 

 quenting one harbour year after year in very great numbers, 

 while another, perhaps only a few miles away, and apparently 

 similar in its natural features, is never entered by them. 



In order to ascertain what fowl frequent any particular 

 harbour or bay, it is only necessary to watch their " morn- 

 ing flight " on two or three occasions. The whole stock of 

 fowl may then be observed, from a favourable post, in the 

 course of a couple of hours. The time thus to " take 

 stock" is at an hour about the break of day sooner or 

 later, according to the tide. The tide, in fact, on the coast 

 supplants to a great extent the ordinary chronological 

 measurements in vogue elsewhere as, somewhere about the 

 middle watches of the night, a burly fisherman ruthlessly 

 obtrudes on the deliciously unconscious sleep of the weary 

 fowler, and one helplessly asks him what hour it may be, 

 the reply is, " It's quarter-flood, sir, and there's no time to 

 be lost!" 



As the first streak of dawn becomes discernible in the 

 eastern skies or rather a little before that period there 

 commences a general movement of wildfowl, and from a 

 favourable position (usually near the mouth of the seaward 

 channel) the whole local stock of fowl may be observed in the 

 course of an hour or two's watching the night-feeding birds 

 speeding outwards to the open sea, and those of day hurrying 

 in, hungry, to their feeding grounds within the harbour. 

 Lying concealed among the weed-covered rocks of the outer- 

 most promontory, the gunner enjoys a moving panorama of 

 bird-life which amply repays the trouble of turning out an 

 hour or two earlier than usual. The nearer the water's edge 

 he lies, the better his chance of a shot ; and he can shift his 

 position a few yards backwards at intervals, as the tide creeps 

 up to his sea-boots. 



At first it is pitch dark, the rude features of the coast 

 scenery but dimly discernible, and only the wild cry of some 

 seafowl heard blended with the roar of the breakers outside. 



