GOOSE SHOOTING. 261 



often alight among them, and begin to fight or to play 

 with them. 



In the South the most common method is to have a 

 water-tight box built on some shoal, or at the edge of 

 some sandy beach, in a place where the geese are ac- 

 customed to congregate. Such a box is commonly four 

 feet deep, and is, of course, open at the top. Usually it 

 is large enough for two men, who are provided with a 

 seat, and with a shelf in front, on which they can place 

 ammunition. A fringe of grass or bushes is tacked 

 about the edge of the box, projecting only six or eight 

 inches above it, through which the occupants can watch 

 the geese as they draw near. 



On a good goosing day, long before it is light, the 

 men go into the goose-pen and capture the live decoys, 

 which are placed in coops, each one large enough to 

 hold two or three birds. The coops are then trans- 

 ported to the boat, if the journey to the box is to be 

 made by water, or are put in the wagon, if the box is 

 close to the shore. The goose stools, on which the 

 tethered birds are to stand, are put in the boat; then 

 the gunners, with their arms and ammunition, enter it, 

 and the start is made for the box. If it should happen 

 that the box has not been used for a long time, or if the 

 previous day was stormy, with a high sea, the box may 

 be found to be full of water, in which case it must, of 

 course, be bailed out. The gunners, with their arms, 

 ammunition and lunch, take their places in it, and the 

 men go off to leeward to set out the decoys. Usually 

 the water is so shoal that they can wade about in it 



