220 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



the wing, you notice how they always rise head to wind, 

 rising straight out of the water by sheer strength, and 

 flying head to wind till well up, when they can throw 

 themselves down to leeward very quickly on a breeze. 



As the nights " pull in," and the gunners grow more keen, 

 they begin their morning flightings to the sea, where they 

 spend their days floating on the German Ocean, secure from 

 punt-guns and " old besses," only returning to the land at 

 night. Sometimes a fine day in September tempts them to 

 spend the day on the broad ; but the expert gunner knows 

 well in such cases they will grow restless about ten o'clock 

 in the morning, and make a bold flight from one broad to 

 another, and he lies in wait for them, neatly " hidden up " 

 in the reed. Again, if the weather be very coarse, they 

 do not go to sea, but keep moving about the inland waters 

 all day, for rough weather unsettles them. That is the 

 gunner's chance ; but, after all, it is not so propitious as 

 the fine dawn of an Indian summer day, when they sit deep 

 in the tranquil waters dozing, whilst the astute gunner sculls 

 up to them silently, the rising autumn sun directly behind 

 him, the hinder part of his punt being kept end on with 

 the sun, and, ere they know it, a rain of deadly hail and 

 a thunderclap startles them into shrieks from their dream ; 

 for most wild-fowl avoid looking at the sun. 



At such times you may see them flighting in family parties; 

 but the gunner soon breaks these up, when they flock in large 

 parties, some old drake leading them. And it is useless to 

 try and tame them. Should you wing any young flappers, 

 the young, if captured, will nearly always drown themselves 

 by diving when approached. I knew of some confined in a 

 wire-netted horsepool : every bird committed suicide. 



Some of the less affectionate families break up sooner 

 than others, and you may in August see a single flapper 

 swimming about in the warm dike water; and I've come 

 across them wandering about the outside-marshes, and 

 swimming through the lazy dike-weeds. 



