DECEMBER 247 



a pack of beagles in full cry. The Brent Geese 

 ("brants" or "Scotch geese" of the east coast 

 fishermen) come to feed with the wigeon on the banks 

 where the ribbon-like grass-wrack grows. Sometimes, 

 as they stand in rank, looming large in the mist, they 

 look like a regiment of soldiers, and often a favourite 

 shoal is black with them. The old gunner who puts 

 out in pursuit tells us that six Grey Geese passed over 

 his head at daybreak as he was laying down lines for 

 codling. Presently we hear the boom of his big 

 stanchion gun, which moves on a swivel in the stern of 

 his punt. Some of the men who make a living in this 

 way develop powers of eyesight, and an intuitive 

 knowledge of the habits of the birds which almost 

 pass belief. Of course even the uninitiated may 

 pronounce a distant speck to be diver or grebe if it 

 swims with straight, upright neck, in figure and in 

 outline entirely different from a duck. The eye picks 

 out a parti-coloured Sheld-duck from amongst fowl of 

 less boldly-contrasted plumage, and the shill whistling 

 of the Wigeon betrays them from afar where they feed 

 with the geese on the outer shoals. Parties of dark- 

 plumaged ducks which dive incessantly near inshore, 

 i.e., above the mussel-beds, are likely to be either 

 Scaup or Scoters. These last are the " black ducks " 

 of the fisherman, as his " dun-birds" are the red-headed 

 Pochards. Of course the common Wild Duck or 

 Mallard is familiar enough upon the coast, especially 



