140 WILD GEESE 



travel and this is in July, provided there are any broods 

 of goslings. Otherwise they do not seem to desire to go. 

 Many times have I watched them walk round and round 

 hunting for a loophole, and tight indeed must be the 

 fence if they do not find one. 



"At this season their direction of travel is north-east- 

 erly, and I never found them going in any other. Why 

 they take this direction at this time has never been clear 

 to me. 



"Wild geese are exceedingly afraid of dogs and will not 

 do well where disturbed by them. I once had one sitting 

 ,on seven eggs when a small dog came into the yard and 

 began playing, running in circles, each one larger than the 

 one before. Finally, in one grand rush, the goose was 

 just in line, and the dog, which had not seen her until the 

 last moment, jumped clear over her. The dog was so 

 scared he ran home, while the goose flapped screaming 

 from her nest and began running at top speed. She con- 

 tinued running and squalling for almost a day and a half 

 until she fell exhausted and died in a few minutes. This 

 goose was raised in captivity and used to dogs all the 

 nineteen years of her life, yet the sudden fright was more 

 than she could stand. 



"In recent years I have found that one can get a second 

 clutch of eggs if the goose is shut out from the first nest 

 for a few days just when she begins to feather it. It is 

 thus possible to double the number of young raised each 

 year, which is indeed quite an item where space and the 

 number of birds kept does not permit of the slower way 

 of increasing the flock. 



"Notwithstanding the fact that few geese are brought 

 to bag by the gunners of the present day, they are stead- 



