ANATIDAE—GEESE.
193
course in the winter time, if he is correct in what he says, which is doubtful.
The Rev. J. C. Atkinson writes (36. 139) that it is
" by far the most numerous of all the Geese which visit our shores in winter,
as it is also the least. I have seen it in inconceivable numbers on the Essex coast
in hard winters, and the numbers reported to have been killed at one discharge of
a heavy punt-gun seem simply incredible. In the very hard and long-continued
winter of 1837-8, I saw the ice which, in broken fragments of four or five feet
square by three or four inches thick, covered the whole estuary of the Blackwater
at Tollesbury (a space of very considerable width), black with them during high
water. The expression made use of by one of the sea-faring men of the neigh-
bourhood was, ' There are acres of 'em.' "
The late Col. Russell also informed Mr. Fitch that he had at times seen them
on the Essex coast in " numbers sufficiently large to completely cover a ten-acre
field." Mr. Fitch himself has frequently seen them at the mouth of the Black-
water in clouds, consisting of immense numbers. Their short hoarse cough is
very remarkable, and has already been alluded to (p. 49.)
In 1871. according to Mr. Smee (34. 2605), the first were seen at the mouth
of the Thames in the second week of October. Large flocks, some of which
numbered over 200 birds, afterwards frequented the mud-flats about the Blacktail
and Nore Sands. Such flocks had not been seen there for ten years and
the gunners made a good living out of them. On March 24, a large flock,
evidently migrating, passed over high up and in a N.E. direction, none having
then been seen for three weeks. During Jan., 1871, Brent Geese were also seen
in extraordinary numbers on the Main, and it is recorded (29. Feb. 4) that "sixteen
punters went together after a flock, and fired at it simultaneously at a given signal
from their leader. Fourteen guns went off, two having missed fire, and 471
birds were bagged."
Many other enormous " bags " of these birds have been from time to time
made on the Essex coast, and some of the reports as to the numbers shot at
one time, which are current among the gunners, marshrnen, punters, and others
dwelling on our shores, are almost beyond belief. The largest bag I ever
heard of on reliable authority, as being made at one time, was on Dengie
Flats, one very sharp winter about thirty years ago (? 1860). Mr. John
Basham, jun., of Maldon, my informant, says that his father, the late Col. Russell,
and thirty other gunners—thirty-two in all, under a recognised leader, as is the
custom on these occasions—approached a very large flock of Geese, and, all firing
together, at a given signal from their leader, bagged and shared equally between
them (as is customary) no less than an average of twenty-two Geese apiece, or 704
altogether, beside a great number more which were not obtained or were concealed
dishonestly by some of the shooters. The largest " shoot," however, in which Mr.
Basham ever personally took part was, he tells me, some twenty years or so ago,
when eighteen punters, including himself, under the leadership of a gunner named
James Chaney, fired simultaneously at an enormous congregation of Geese
collected together, one bright moonlight night, on the muds of the St. Peter's
Flats, off Bradwell Chapel, obtaining as share twenty birds apiece, or 360 in
all. One gun missed fire, but, as usual, all shared alike. On this occasion
the punts were allowed to drift onwards with the tide. The biggest bag, made at
a single shot, John Basham ever heard of was, he tells me, made about twenty-
five years ago by a gunner (now deceased), known as " Old Stubbins," of Maldon,
who killed no less than fifty Geese at the mouth of Thurslett Creek, in Tollesbury
Parish, by a single discharge of his large punt gun, which weapon was familiarly
O