1916 J Phillips, Problems in Migration. 25 



Now if a successful shot is finally made into such a flock, and 

 perhaps one half or three fourths of their number have been killed, 

 the remainder, after a few turns in the air, or a short flight of five 

 or ten minutes, will almost always return to the pond, where, 

 if not actually disturbed, they will remain from several hours to a 

 day or so. Sometimes they will decoy a second time. 



Now the method employed in capturing such "left over" geese 

 is to put out a boat, which manoeuvre is seldom objected to, and 

 to scull directly down upon them. A close shot is often obtained 

 from the boat and an approach of from sixty to seventy-five yards 

 is almost always possible. If disturbed, such geese nearly always 

 come back to another part of the pond, when the same process is 

 repeated, only the birds get a little wilder each time, as a rule. 

 The more successful the first shot from the stand and the less geese 

 there are "left over," the better is the chance of obtaining a close 

 shot from a boat. 



Now this curious "stupidity" is manifested by the same geese, 

 which, in an organized migrating flock only a few minutes before, 

 would have left the pond at the slightest indication of danger. 

 Some mutual interrelation has become disorganized, and that 

 this has been caused by something more than fright alone would 

 seem probable, because on the winter feeding grounds geese do not 

 show any such "stupidity," but simply depart post-haste after 

 some or many of their numbers have fallen. Also in a Massachu- 

 setts decoy pond, if, through some error, a poor shot or total miss 

 is made, the frightened flock simply holds on its way South, and 

 is not seen again. Of course the presence of the live decoys has 

 something to do with the puzzled behavior of the geese, but will 

 it explain their disregard of an approaching boat. 



It is to be remarked that the geese referred to are birds in full 

 migration and thus under the impelling force of a peculiar "in- 

 stinct." 



That geese migrate in families and that autumn flocks at least 

 are composed of parents and their young has always been inferred. 

 This theory is strengthened by the actual count of large numbers 

 of flocks of geese on the autumn migration in Massachusetts 

 made by myself at Wenliam and Oldham Ponds. When plotted 

 out in a frequency curve, we get a marked rise in the curve running 



