WILD GEESE. 257 



ing for a few moments they settled down again, if the 

 enemy kept himself well concealed, and commenced 

 feeding. If they descried him, however, they fled in the 

 most precipitate manner, and did not stop untd they 

 placed many a mile between him and themselves. They 

 also became suspicious of horses after that, and looked 

 upon them as foes in disguise. It is wonderful what little 

 attention a flock of wild geese sometimes pay to a man 

 without a gun, but let him have one, and the moment 

 the sentinel gander espies him he sounds an alarm imme- 

 diately, and all seek safety in flight, after honking their 

 displeasure at his presence. The adage, " Silly as a 

 goose," can have no reference to the wild species, for 

 if there is a cautious, vigilant, keen-eyed, sharp-hearing 

 bird, it is a wild goose. Awkward and doltish as it may 

 look when waddling around on land, few of its order can 

 compare with it in gracefulness as, with expanded wings, 

 it sails in the air, or floats tranquilly on the body of some 

 placid lake or glistening river. 



The most exciting system of shooting geese practised 

 along the sea-coast is to sail down upon them when they 

 are bedded on the water, or to pepper them from sink- 

 boxes, which are buried to their edges on some point or bar 

 which they cross when flying from one spot to another, or 

 which they visit to preen themselves after their bath and 

 dinner. Where the geese are numerous, some men make a 

 living by shooting them for the market or by letting boats 

 and decoys to sportsmen who wish to have a day's wild- 

 fowling. These men are generally ardent lovers of the 

 pleasures of the gun, and know more about the habits of 

 the AnserincB than all the closet naturalists I ever met. 

 They can tell each species ag soon as they hear its cry, 

 and translate into plain English every note of a wily 

 gander or a piping gosling. They usually keep what is 

 called in local parlance a "ng" — that is, a number of 

 wild geese which have been partially domesticated and 



