much of their wildness. The river wluruges should be the roost- 
ing areas for the flock, and ideally they should contain the 
bulk of the birds at most times. | | 
Canada geese will readily feed by nisht, at daybreak, 
or at dusk, if austunned by day. This fact may offer a partial 
solution to the Horseshoe Lake problem. If the geese were per-~ 
mitted to feed at the Horseshoe Lake Refuge only during the hour 
of dawn and dusk, the reestablishment of wildness might occur an 
with it a reduction in the rate of kill. We have a precedent | 
for such a bourate of action in the operation of the Minds Sanc- 
tuary, where the geese feed only in the early morning hours and 
at dusk, spending the remainder of their time sock ele on Lake 
Erie. 
State regulations in recent years have prohibited the 
placing of shooting pits within 75 to 150 yards of the boundary 
of the Horseshoe Lake Refuge. This buffer zone, which is in- 
tended to allow the geese to attain safe heights before reach- 
ing the shooting pits and blinds, is unquestionably insufficient, 
since many of the geese leaving the refuge encounter shot 75 
yards away from the first line of pits. Although the Miner 
Sanctuary consists of only 400 acres and supports an even greate 
density of geese than is ever experienced at Horseshoe Lake, 
there have not been excessive kills near there in late years. 
Responsible in part for the small kills reported in the vicinity 
of the Miner Sanctuary is a buffer zone that surrounds the feed= 
ing grounds and ponds for a distance of a mile. When geese 
a) IS 
