HABITS AND MIGRATIONS OF WILDFOWL. 15 



want to feed, and consequently they have to wait till the fields 

 are left quiet and undisturbed. 



On October 14th it was 5 p.m. when the harvesters left the 

 fields, and it was 5.15 (as above stated) when the geese, which 

 had been sitting about a mile off on an open stretch of sand, rose 

 to go into the fields. The geese at this season alight among the 

 stocks, where they can feed at leisure, without having the trouble 

 of walking about to look for the grain. That they will return, 

 however, to their more regular habit of feeding by day on the very 

 first opportunity was fully demonstrated to me, for on October 

 16th, when it was so stormy that the farm labourers could not 

 work in the fields, I saw fully two hundred geese busily engaged 

 in feeding on the stubbles, about ten o'clock in the morning, and 

 this in the very field where but two days ago they were feeding 

 at night. Again on October 21st I saw about five hundred geese 

 sitting on the sands. They were very restless, and would not 

 allow the punt to approach them. Every now and tlien they 

 would rise in a body and betake themselves inland. Here, 

 however, they found the fields frequented by workpeople, and 

 after gyrating in the open air at a great height for a few minutes, 

 they would return to the sands from whence they had risen. 



During the three days succeeding this date they were regu- 

 larly to be found sitting on the open sands during the day, wait- 

 ing for the fields to be cleared, when they might feed unmolested 

 by night. By October 25th the stooks had been got in, and the 

 stubbles were left unfrequented by man. The geese at once 

 assumed their normal habits, feeding all day, and half an hour 

 before dark any night their extraordinary^ V'^l^aped formation 

 might be seen heading direct for their favourite resting-places. 

 Their formation when on the wing is more mechanically true 

 than is the case with Brent Geese, and the incessant gaggling 

 which they make on going to and from their feeding grounds is 

 audible at an immense distance. Many a flight-shooter has 

 endeavoured to waylay these wary birds as they come to the 

 sands at night, but with very indift'erent success. I believe nine 

 nights out of ten they do not even get a shot. 



On October 23rd I all but succeeded in getting a good shot 

 at them. The position was peculiar. An isthmus of sand liSO 

 yards wide separates the north sea from the harbour waters. At 

 a point in this isthmus is an opening or channel, some 50 yards 



