WILDFOWL AND WILDFOWLING 
such situations. No dramatic presentment in playhouse ever entranced 
my senses as did that wild scene in bird -life. 
I have tried briefly to sketch some of the normal surroundings of the 
punt -gunner. Such scenes as the above he may— or may not — enjoy during 
a single winter’s day afloat; more probably a much longer period would 
be required. 
On the desolate oozes and mudflats where^ the Zostera marina luxuri- 
ates, he will find the geese by day; the mallards, wigeon, and other game- 
ducks by night. The wading tribes do not affect the mud so much ; their 
preference is for sand, a substance which, in parts of our littoral, spreads 
away in viewless plains, partly moist and firm; elsewhere red-brown in 
colour, dry and spongy; but in any case intersected by winding tidal 
channels of salt water. 
It is in such spots as these that the fowler finds the waders— “ hen- 
footed fowl,” I have heard them called — often in such hordes as to defy 
calculation or estimate of numbers. They comprise chiefly curlews, god- 
wits, knots and plovers, with all their smaller congeners. Here, too, when 
winter gales do blow, and raging seas outside become untenable, the 
nocturnal game-ducks (especially mallard), may oft be found in shelter, 
dozing away the daylight hours. And, in those parts of our island fre- 
quented by grey geese, the sand -flats form a favourite roosting place- 
provided always that such places lie well beyond the ‘‘ full sea ” mark. 
Thither those astute fowl will come down half -an -hour before dark, 
flighting from the inland stubbles and clover-leas, where they have spent 
the day feeding. 
Note that the brent geese, already mentioned, never go inland ; they 
feed by day in tidal oozes and spend the night asleep on the open sea. 
In wildfowling the term “geese” is practically restricted to brent 
geese — so rarely are any other species obtained by punt -gunners. Being 
exclusively marine in their habitat, the brents, combined with wigeon, 
probably comprise eighty if not ninety per cent of the entire sum -total 
of wildfowl killed in British waters. That proportion would certainly 
apply to the northern, eastern and southern coasts where brent geese 
frequent in thousands every suitable estuary. Bernacle geese affect 
chiefly the western coast, though both species are found in Ireland. 
Despite plain colouring and a modest dress, few fowl are smarter and 
more shapely than the brent geese. Their tails, it should be explained, 
are black, but are not visible, owing to the long white upper and under 
391 
