Wild Geese i73 



tliem in this respect. They discern an}- strange object which may- 

 be a source of clanger, at what seems to us quite impo. sible chstances, 

 and take measures to avoid it. But there is one quahfication 

 to be remembered as regards the excellence of their vision. 

 They would require fairly good daylight. At dusk or at night 

 they do not see very well ; with greatly reduced illumination 

 their visual powers are proportionately lower than those of 

 Ducks. Gecsc are far harder than Ducks to approach by day ; 

 by night the positions are reversed. The same is true of fog ; Geese 

 are frequently quite stupid and helpless in fog ; they seem to lose 

 their bearings and blunder into all sorts of dangers owing to their 

 visual delicienc}-, and big bags have frequently been made on land 

 or sea in such conditions. 



Smell. — There is a good deal of disagreement as to the develop- 

 ment of this sense in Geese, and indeed in birds generally. Some 

 authorities hold that birds, more especially such birds as belong to 

 the order Anseres, are very highly endowed with the power of scent, 

 and others consider that this sense is almost a negligible quantity ; 

 to this latter opinion I am a convinced adherent. I have stalked 

 Geese times without number down wind, and have never seen 

 occasion to alter my practice. In stalking dow-n wind, more care 

 has to be exercised in maintaining the most perfect silence, avoiding 

 loose stones, snapping twigs and so on, because these sounds are more 

 readily conveyed down wind, and no one doubts their power of 

 hearing. If a flock of Geese were to alight in such a position that 

 they could be stalked from two different directions up wind or down, 

 but the down wind crawl gave better cover, I should unhesitatingly 

 try to get in down wind, and risk their detecting my approach by 

 their powers of smell. If they see you, if they catch the smallest 

 glimpse of an\'thing suspicious, the game is up, equally so if they hear 

 any abnormal noise ; but I do not think the question of smell would 

 have any appreciable bearing on the result. 



Perhaps this may be the place to say a word about their extra- 

 ordinary sensitiveness to weather-changes of all kinds, the barometric 

 sense, one may say. They have a most acute knowledge of coming 

 weather-changes, which often become sensible to them before the 

 mercury- in our own barometer has begun to move. 



A gale of wind upsets all Geese to some extent and adds to their 

 difficulty in obtaining food. They are frequently very busy in laying 

 in a good supply before the advent of the gale, and are in 

 consequence very tame on such occasions, and again immediately 

 after the storm. More especially is this the case with the marine 

 Brent Goose, which may be unable to get at the zostera beds for food, 

 or to obtain any rest on the broken water during the continuance of 

 the storm. They have but two ideas when threatened with a storm, 

 food and sleep, in preparation for the strenuous battle that they 

 know is in front of them. Immediately after the storm, the weary 

 and famished birds again think only of food and rest, rest and food. 



