88 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
shelter. Now is the fowler’s chance. He selects a spot in the 
line of flight and takes toll of the passing birds. All the flocks, 
it is remarkable to state, although they are undoubtedly out of 
sight of each other, usually fly the same route; thus, once 
hitting off the correct line of flight, the fowler is in clover. 
When the ducks, after being buffeted for days at sea, take to 
sheltering in the bays, the shooter whose stand is in their line 
of flight may expect good sport. At such times duck (the 
surface-feeders, such as mallard, widgeon, and teal) readily cross 
headlands and points on the coast. The reason all go in the 
one direction is probably due to their seeking shelter in the 
same quarter. To a degree this is much the same with night- 
flighting, when, of course, the duck are making for the same 
feeding ground. Shore-bird flighting may be enjoyed when 
the weather is beautifully calm, for in the case of these birds 
it is a matter of migration pure and simple. Such sport is 
occasionally secured miles from a point of the coast which these 
birds haunt daily. Possibly the flights of shore-birds which 
pass, sometimes for days together, along a coast, are migrants 
which have reached our shores from across the sea, and are 
making alongshore to the nearest suitable quarter. Day- 
flighting at plover (golden and green) often occurs after or at 
the beginning of a hard frost. No doubt the plover are then 
changing quarters. At such times very large bags have been 
made, for as things often turn out, the plover fly incessantly in 
small trips from daylight until dark. 
With regard to migratory birds, we might enjoy much more, 
sport at these were it not for the fact that many migrate at 
night, and it is only when they choose or happen to move by 
day that we meet with them. On the coast one never knows 
what may be met with. I have known a flight of wood-pigeons 
to last a week, during which time one gunner alone bagged 
a hundred and forty. At the migration season of the year, 
especially November, owls, hawks, crows, wood-pigeon, in- 
