CHAPTER LXXIV. 



METHOD OF CAPTURING WILD-GEESE IN INDIA. 



" There is a Power, whose care 



Teaches thy way along the pathless coast, 

 The desert and illimitable air. 

 Lone wandering, but not lost." 



W. C. Bryant. 



On the Ganges, and in some otlier parts of India, wild-geese are 

 taken by a simple, though very remarkable artifice. The fowler 

 covers his head with a calabash,* hollowed out in such a manner as 

 to admit the whole of his cranium ; and pierced with small eyelet and 

 respiration holes. The rind of the gourd is also slightly cut away in 

 places, and the fruity part exposed so as to make it as enticing a bait 

 as possible. In this disguise the fowlers of India wade up to their 

 ears in the water, among wild-geese, as they sit upon the surface : 

 and, as no part of the head, limbs, or body of the fowler is seen above 

 the water, if he acts cautiously he may snatch the birds down one 

 after another without awakening suspicion, or alarming others which 

 may be sitting among them. 



A fowler, so disguised, is careful to keep himself deeply immersed 

 in order that the gom-d only may be visible upon the surface : and, 

 as gourds are constantly floating about the Ganges, and afford excel- 

 lent food for wild-geese, those birds become thoroughly familiarized 

 with the sight of them ; and, in that peculiar disguise, suffer the am- 

 phibious fowler to intrude among them, not in the least aware of his 

 presence, or suspecting his design : on the contrary, the geese 

 approach, and peck at the gourds with their bills. The fowler then 



* " Calahaslh, a gourd or pompion, the fruit of the Adansonia or Baobab tree, the 

 shells of which are employed by the Caribbce Islanders for drinking- cups, kettles, 

 measures, musical instruments, and various other purposes." — Encyclo. Met. ^ 



" Calabash tree. It hath a flower consisting of one leaf, divided at the brim into 

 . several parts ; from whose cup rises the pointal in the hinder part of the flower ; 

 which afterwards becomes a fleshy fruit, having a hard shell." — Miller. 



