46 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



he had been watching the movements of a lot of about thirty birds 

 which had recently arrived in the neighbourhood, and that he thotlght 

 we might get a shot at them if we had any luck. An early hour 

 the following morning, therefore, saw my cousin Tom and myself 

 on the march, under Sandy's guidance, toward the field where Sandy 

 told us the geese were sure to be. Six miles of hard walking 

 brought us to a high and very thick hedge about half a mile from 

 the spot in question, a large field of young wheat belonging to an 

 old farmer, whose dislike to the proceedings of Wild Geese was 

 only equalled by his love of whisky. 



After a prolonged stare through a small hole in the hedge, 

 Sandy somewhat dejectedly announced that the birds were not 

 visible. " He had seen them there," he said, " the morning 

 before" at an earlier hour, but his advice was that we should 

 conceal ourselves under the hedge for a time, in the hope that 

 they might turn up later, as, owing to the presence of a certain 

 ditch, which bisected the field in question, the place was an 

 exceptionally favourable one for a drive. The hedge was 

 horribly thorny and everything was very wet, the air, moreover, 

 was uncommonly cool, and Sandy would not hear of our 

 smoking, therefore did the time seem long and the performance 

 monotonous. 



Very nearly an hour had elapsed, when I saw the old man cock 

 his head, and in another second or two I could hear the wild 

 geese high aloft screaming and trumpeting ; they were coming 

 from the direction opposite to that from which Sandy expected 

 them, and had doubtless been indulging in a meal elsewhere. 

 After a preliminary survey, they settled down in the field and soon 

 began to feed ravenously under the watchful guardianship of a 



