FLIGHTING 127 



control over the favoured spots, for unless this is carefully 

 attended to the haunt is broken and sport for the season is at 

 an end. 



In frosty weather the habits of wildfowl are completely 

 revolutionised. When pressed by hunger they will seek food 

 regardless of the hour, whether by day or night, and under 

 any fairly favourable conditions or circumstances. On 

 finding themselves gradually forced from their inland resorts 

 they circle nearer and nearer to the saltings and estuaries, 

 until these alone remain unfrozen, when, if they are very much 

 harassed, further migrations occur. 



As soon as the frost breaks, old habits are quickly resumed 

 and condition regained in a manner which is perfectly mar- 

 vellous. Besides, they feed so gluttonously that it renders 

 them more drowsy and less vigilant, hence easier to handle 

 than during the normal wild weather. Then is the time for 

 our friend the flighter and other wildfowlers to gather a 

 harvest, for this change, besides possessing the above-mentioned 

 advantages, causes larger " companies " to scatter into smaller 

 " trips," spreading widely in their eagerness to discover which 

 place will first provide them with the most luscious food, the 

 search for which they continue for a time preparatory to 

 settling down to former regular habits and customs. 



Flight shooting is a sport which is conducted under a 

 variety of circumstances and places, and if tidal flighting, or 

 that on estuaries, is taken into consideration, times may also 

 be added ; but inland the long-winged fowl invariably flight at 

 dusk, and not at any definite hour, as is sometimes erroneously 

 stated to be the case. This fact can easily be ascertained by 

 observing the habits of tame wildfowl, whose demonstrative 

 signs of liveliness and uneasiness, which gradually in- 

 creases as eventide approaches, will be only too ap- 

 parent. It is instinctive in the species to visit " fresh 

 fields and pastures new " at nightfall, however abundant food 

 may be in the locality wherein they have passed their hours 

 of idleness, and instances come under notice where fowl flight 

 from one place to another, and vice versa. 



