CANADA GOOSE-SHOOTING. 285 
over one’s head, perhaps thirty yards high, facing a 
moderately strong wind ; false, in almost every other 
way. They are swift of flight, and when a single goose 
comes down wind in a hurry to meet an appointment, 
or to get there ahead of some companion who has gone 
by some other route, a train of cars going forty-five 
miles an hour is slow compared with the speed such a 
goose will travel. Let a goose travel in that way low 
down, say ten or twenty feet from the ground, how 
will the amateur judge his distance, and how to shoot? 
He sees a big body going along swiftly ; it seems to 
him the bird is going at a lively rate, still, he recalls 
how he has seen their lumbering forms buffeting against 
a strong wind, or how he has seen them hovering over 
the corn-fields, and it doesn’t seem to him they can_ fly 
fast if they tried; besides, the goose being not far 
from the ground, seems so very close to him, he sees 
the black neck and head, thinks the bird not over 30 
to 35 yards, holds possibly a foot, may be two feet, 
ahead of him and fires. Of course he misses, for the 
bird is fully 50 yards from him, and going like the wind. 
He ought to hold fully four feet ahead. They are the 
most deceptive bird that flies to judge their distance, 
and always look from twenty to forty yards nearer than 
they actually are. This is caused by their great size, 
and the position the shooter is placed in. He must 
always be well hid, frequently in a cramped or strained 
position peering through the blind on the bow of his boat, 
peeping from behind an old log, squinting through a 
clump of bushes, or lying flat on his back, trying to 
catch side glances of the coming bird, by sighting over 
the bridge of his nose, while he writhes around on the 
ground serpent-like, trying to always keep the geese in 
