172 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



confine their operations to the mud and ooze, and seldom 

 dream of " poling " perhaps several miles into what appears 

 but a useless waste of sand. 



At full tide the area of sand left uncovered is of course 

 greatly reduced, and it is during the last quarter's flood that 

 the best chances are to be secured by the punt-gunner. 

 Then, as the tidal sand-banks one after another disappear, 

 the Ducks which have been dozing the hours away along 

 their edges are set afloat, and, together with those which 

 have been resting in the water of the channels, come driving 

 gently up on the tide, and drift, as it were passively, into the 

 shallow backwaters already mentioned. Here the fowler 

 should be lying ready in his craft, and at such times, barring 

 accidents, is tolerably sure of a fair reward for his patience. 



Considering the well-known fact that the Mallard is 

 certainly one of the wildest and most watchful birds in 

 existence, one singular fact has always struck the writer as 

 being among the most inexplicable features in wildfowling, 

 namely, the comparative ease with which these Ducks can 

 often be approached in broad daylight in a gunning-punt. 

 Under such circumstances as I have just described, one 

 sometimes obtains, during a single tide, chances to experi- 

 ment on a variety of fowl and to compare their relative 

 degrees of wariness. Thus we perhaps first try our skill on 

 a small lot of Grey Geese, resting close to the wash of the 

 sea. No ! They won't have it at all ! They rise five gun- 

 shots away ; then some Sheld Ducks fix the range of safety 

 (in their ideas) at three. Even the spread-eagled Cormor- 

 ants utterly decline negotiation, and as for the waders, they 

 are perhaps the " shiftiest " of all. Incidentally I may 

 remark that the aggregation of these latter birds, which at 

 flood-tide assemble on the sand-bars, is sometimes almost 

 marvellous. The whole interior expanse of mud-flat and 

 ooze up the estuary being then submerged, the wading birds 

 are driven out to the only refuge which remains uncovered 

 namely, the now comparatively limited area of the sand- 

 bar. At full-sea this resort is thronged, ay! "carpeted," 

 with such multitudes of "hen-footed fowl," as I must 

 decline attempting to describe. To convey an adequate 



