586 DUCK SHOOTING. 



is to break up the habit of the geese of loitering on the 

 Platte in their flight southward, and to hurry them on 

 their journey where they can at least rest one day in 

 peace. The chances are that, if this wholesale hunting 

 of them is continued for another year or two, they will 

 seek other lines in their migrations, and that we will 

 never again see geese on the Platte in great numbers. 

 At the station, where we took the train coming home, 

 we met a couple of gentlemen who had been in the 

 habit of going out on the Platte annually after geese. 

 This year they had occupied blinds just above us. They 

 told us that one day neither of them got a shot." 



In 1885, the same correspondent told a similar story. 

 He said that the geese had not come as usual to the 

 Platte River, nor had they appeared much about the 

 lakes and ponds, nor in the corn fields of the farmers, 

 as had been their habit in former years; nor, indeed, 

 had many been seen in flight going southward over 

 this region. He then adds, naively : 



"No one seems to be able to account for this sudden 

 diminution of wild geese along the Platte. It never 

 occurred to me that it would happen during my life- 

 time. There are various theories regarding it. One 

 is, that they have taken a different line in their migra- 

 tion southward ; another, that, as the country has set- 

 tled up further northward, and grain has been grown 

 there, they stop along the lakes in that region, and re- 

 main because they are not disturbed ; another, that they 

 did come down here, but as every farmer had a gun, to 

 pop away at them in the fields where they went to feed, 



