CHAPTER XI. 



WILD GEESE. 



Wild geese — Abundant in the West — Very destructive to winter crops 

 — Large numbers poisoned annually — How geese are poisoned in 

 China — Number of species of geese in the United States and Can- 

 ada —The system of goose shooting practised in the West — A re- 

 trieving mule— Earnings of market hunters — Blinds — Wounded 

 decoys — The proper color of the clothes — lee blinds — Men on 

 horseback — Haunts of geese — Fire-hunting -Large numbers shot — 

 The "goose season" — Migrations — Seldom alight in woods — Fly 

 low in windy, rainy, and murky weather- Sailing to geese — Punt- 

 guns tabooed by gentlemen — Sneak-boats, sneak-boses and de- 

 coys — General sketches of the white-fronted or laughing goose, 

 the snow goose, the horned wavy, the emperor, or painted goose, 

 the blue goose, or bald-headed brant, the black brant and its va- 

 rieties, and the Canada goose and its varieties — How to distin- 

 guish geese from swans and ducks — A suggestion for pursuing 

 wild animals — A thousand geese killed in a week — Drunken geese 

 and pot-hunters — Stalking geese under cover of a horse — Geese 

 and guns — Professional wild-fowlers and their " rigs " — Sink- 

 boxes — Staking out decoys— Value of a good " caller" — Bringing 

 down wild birds— A swimmer and bis duties — A day in a sneak- 

 box— A ducking in a lake — The shady side of sport. 



Wild geese are more abundant in the West in autumn, 

 and the South-west in winter, than in any other portion 

 of the Continent, for they move in such vast flocks that 

 they might be apjjropriately compared to a snow storm. 

 Their presence is not an unmixed blessing, however, es- 

 pecially to farmers, as they often destroy large crops of 

 winter cereals, and are so destructive in other ways that 

 a relentless war is waged against them, every means of 

 destruction, from shooting to poisoning, being employed 

 to lessen their numbers. They have been known to eat 

 up a third of the winter wheat in some of the regions 

 adjoining the Missouri River; and in California they 

 240 



