GOOSE SHOOTING. 26^ 



usually put at one end of one of the lines or off to one 

 side, and the goose to which this gander is particularly- 

 attached at the other end. After the decoys are tied 

 out, the men go away and hide their boat, and then take 

 a position on the shore, as near as possible to the blind, 

 where they can watch everything that is done. 



If the weather is right for goosing, it is usually not 

 long before a flock of the birds are seen coming. The 

 decoys are likely to recognize them as soon as any one, 

 and as soon as they see them they begin to call. If the 

 decoys are properly set, the approaching geese will 

 answer, and will usually lower their flight and prepare 

 to alight with them. It is a common practice to allow 

 them to do this, and then to fire one barrel at the birds 

 on the water and another as they rise. If they swim up 

 to the decoys in a long line, as they often do, the gun- 

 ners, by aiming at their heads and necks, may often kill 

 a large number on the water, and then, shooting with 

 judgment, as the birds begin to rise, may get a number 

 more. By this means, in favorable localities, more than 

 a hundred geese are sometimes killed in a day, and not 

 infrequently, with the geese, a number of swans may be 

 taken, since the swans resort to the same feeding and 

 roosting grounds that the geese occupy. 



There is little to be said in praise of the altogether 

 common practice of allowing geese to alight and shoot- 

 ing them on the water. It, of course, largely increases 

 the count, which, in fact, is what many men shoot for, 

 but there is certainly little satisfaction to be derived 

 from killing with the shot-gun on the water a bird as 



