204 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



or carelessness is usually called) needs not be told. Kegrets 

 and posthumous wisdom were alike of no avail, and nothing 

 remained to us hut to lie flat and watch the course of events. 

 Gradually, foot by foot, as the flowing tide rose in the creeks, 

 we watched our rivals pushing nearer and nearer to the black 

 and clamorous phalanx before them. Presently they lay 

 within a gunshot and a half, and their success appeared but 

 a matter of moments. But a sudden change took place in 

 the tide of fortune. All at once, and for no visible reason, 

 the thousand pairs of dark pinions were spread, and with a 

 sonorous roar the anserine host rose on wing. Directly 

 towards us they shape their flight ; close over the three 

 prostrate punters passed their loudly gaggling columns, 

 apparently quite unconscious of threatening danger, for in 

 the open water just outside our unseen craft they splash 

 down with wheeling flight and graceful evolution, describing 

 in their descent a thousand eddying, opposing circles, con- 

 centric, eccentric, and elliptic. The position of the rival 

 gunners was now reversed, for while the two " early birds " 

 had to extricate themselves, stern first, from the creeks, we 

 were in a position for immediate action. Luck had stepped 

 in to help us where foresight failed ! The Geese sat very 

 scatteredly, so much so that while occupying acres of water 

 they did not offer at any single point a dense mass on which 

 to direct the stanchion-gun. In a few minutes we were close 

 on their flank already amongst the rearmost stragglers, 

 and within range of the main line, when they again rose, 

 suddenly and spontaneously as before. A shot as they rose 

 would probably have secured four or five ; but I prudently 

 refrained, for they were only shifting their quarters, and 

 almost immediately pitched again on the mud-edge, within 

 a quarter of a mile. Once more we "set" in towards them: 

 again we reach the fatal range, and ere they rise the big 

 muzzle yawns within 100 yards of their dense ranks. Then 

 the clamorous roar of their departure resounded : they had 

 just risen clear of the mud, when the thunder of the 

 stanchion-gun booms over the watery waste. Back rebounds 

 the punt, and through the cloud of smoke we see the deadly 

 result. Their line is broken, and the wide gap cut by ten 



