242 
alt.en’s naturalist's library. 
nessed this capture, 3,325 Geese were taken, of which no less 
than 3,300 were Brents. Of the interesting details given by 
the author there is not space to extract more than a few words, 
but the whole scene is very vividly described by him. “ Long 
before we could see the boats, for the mist had thickened, we 
could hear shouting and the cries of the Geese, but after a bit 
first one boat and then another came into view. On the men 
came, but very slowly ; now pulling across a creek, now push- 
ing the arnoh over a bit of mud or hauling it over a sand- 
ridge, sometimes leaving it altogether and running off to head 
the Geese. So, slowly, they came zig-zagging along. 
“ By this time we could see Geese by thousands through 
the mist. I could even distinguish the short trumpet-note of 
the Brent among the general babel. It was, indeed, a babel. 
How to convey to you any idea of it I do not know. If you 
can imagine many hundred farmyard Geese and many thousand 
cornets all sounding together, and crowded on by a handful of 
screaming wild men — if you can imagine all this, then you are 
not far off the mark. . . . 
“ For some little while the Geese delayed as though they 
felt that they were getting too much inland, or suspected a 
trap in front. Then the boats c.'ime up from behind and the 
Geese crowded on. They didn’t like going. Sometimes the 
leading Geese would stop and wheel about, heading right into 
the mass But the boats came steadily on. 
Every moment I looked to see the parents escape by diving, 
or expected some to rise, for it was plain enough that many 
were full-winged. Neither of these things they did ; only, like 
a pack of idiots, they ‘ wanked ’ and swam along. The grey 
Gee.se dived. The Bean and the White-fronts behaved exactly 
alike. First they laid out their long necks flat on the water, 
as their fellows did on the land. Then, as the boats came 
nearer, they sank their bodies till the water was almost over 
their backs. It was wonderfully difficult to see them— they 
looked like bits of stick. When a boat approached a bird, it 
would just sink its head and shoot forward under the water. 
They never went down like Diving-Ducks.” 
“ And now the body of Brents was exactly opposite the 
entrance to the nets, and about them in a half-circle were the 
boats. Round and round they swam, but refused to leave the 
