256 AMEKICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



holes," sueak-boats, and sneak-boxes in a short time, 

 and to know by intuition where danger lies. The most 

 successful method of shooting them upon streams or 

 lakes is to scull upon them down wind, as they must rise 

 to the windward, and this may bring them within gun 

 range before they can get on the wing. If I were to give 

 a maxim for j)ursuing wild animals, I should say: Hunt 

 quadrupeds up wind, and wild fowl down wind; keep out 

 of sight as much as possible, and preserve the strictest 

 silence. Study the haunts and habits of all creatures 

 you desire to capture; be patient and persevering, rather 

 than impetuous and eager; and do not destroy anything 

 out of mere wantonness of spirit. 



The abundance of geese in the West and Southwest 

 may be inferred from the fact that a man has been known 

 to kill a thousand in a week with a muzzle-loading gun, 

 and that another had to use a cart to take Avhat he shot 

 in two days to market. This was in Minnesota. A mean 

 way of destroying them is practised in some portions of 

 the Northwest. This is to soak corn in whiskey and 

 scatter it in fields which they frequent. When they eat 

 this they become helplessly intoxicated, and the men 

 then go among them and knock them on the head with 

 clubs. They often load cart after cart with them by this 

 method, and send them to market, where they meet with 

 a ready sale. I have known men to kill two hundred geese 

 in a day with a muzzle-loader, by stalking them in a 

 field under cover of a well-trained horse. These men did 

 not bear directly down on the birds, but approached them 

 obliquely, and very slowly, in order to lead them to sup- 

 pose that no harm was intended, and when they got 

 within shooting range they opened fire with huge wea- 

 pons loaded with BB shot, and frequently bagged from 

 ten to thirty in one round. After the volley, the surviv- 

 ors rose in the air for a few moments and screamed their 

 sense of annoyance at being disturbed, but after hover- 



