194 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



although they yielded a good harvest, netting 

 them was not very profitable, as only the 

 villagers and fisherfolk would buy them. Their 

 flesh was dark and " fishy." 



Experiments in fattening were upon one 

 occasion successfully tried with a brood of 

 Grey-lag Geese, which the old fowler dis- 

 covered on the marshes. As this is the species 

 from which our domestic stock is descended, 

 he found little difficulty in herding, though he 

 was always careful to house them at night, 

 and wisely pinioned them as the time of the 

 autumnal migration came round. He well knew 

 that the skeins of wild geese which at this 

 time nightly crossed the sky, calling as they 

 flew, would soon have robbed him of his flock. 

 To give some idea of the enormous number 

 of wild-fowl which once visited the fens and 

 marshes, it may be mentioned that a flock of 

 wild ducks has been observed passing along 

 from north and north-east in a continuous 

 stream for eight hours together. But this 

 was in the good old times. Kittiwake and his 

 occupation are alike gone. 



