198 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



Geese waddling and croaking just in front of him, for all 

 the world like an old henwife driving her brood to market. 

 One by one, as they are overtaken, each bird lies flat down 

 on the mud, stretching out his snake-like neck horizontally 

 in a last hope of escaping detection. It is, moreover, 

 astonishing how easy it is to overlook a Goose (which has 

 fallen at a distance) when crouching thus. By taking 

 advantage of some small hollow in the mud, they reduce 

 themselves to much less bulk than one would imagine such 

 large birds to be capable of ; and so closely do they then 

 resemble little bunches of drift weed, &c., that you may 

 easily be searching all round, while your victim lies motion- 

 less, with his keen eye intent on you, within half a dozen 

 yards. 



The plumage of these birds is subject to some consider- 

 able variation. Generally speaking, it may be described 

 thus : Head and neck black, sooty in tone, but yet glossy ; 

 back and wings dark slate-blue ; the whole of the tail- 

 coverts, above and below, pure white, causing the conspicu- 

 ous "white sterns." It is the plumage of the under parts 

 which varies most, this ranging from the palest grey (almost 

 white in some birds) to quite dark colours. In some of the 

 latter dark-complexioned individuals the breast is slate blue, 

 almost as dark as the back ; but in about one bird in fifty it 

 is of a bright glossy-brown shade. 



These dark-breasted birds are the exception, the vast 

 majority being pale grey or dusky below, all more or less 

 conspicuously barred, especially about the flanks. Then, 

 on turning over a pile of Brents, one finds here and there a 

 bird with pale edgings to the upper wing-coverts, forming a 

 regular series of light bars across the wing. Such birds 

 are understood to be the young of the year ; if so, it is diffi- 

 cult to see why they should be, relatively, so scarce. The 

 reverse is what one would expect, unless, indeed, it should 

 prove that the young are less inclined to so far prolong their 

 migrations, and that the bulk of our visitors are old birds. 

 I should add that some of these bar-winged birds have the 

 white neck-spot fully developed, more so than many of the 

 plain-plumaged ones. 



