114 WILD GEESE. 



The Tai-yuan Fu plain is a very good place for goose shooting and 

 I have enjoyed many a day's outing in company with one or another 

 of the foreign residents in that city. We used to ride ; out 

 to the river and slowly . work along its course for eight or 1 ten miles. 

 On one of these expeditions three of us, armed with shot guns and rifles, 

 and having a Peking cart with us, enjoyed particularly good sport. 

 The cart came into play in one place with good effect. A flock was 

 sighted near the river so that we could not surround it, being able to 

 approach from one direction only. There was no cover so we direct- 

 ed the carter to drive as if to pass the flock. This he did while we 

 kept out of sight behind the cart. When in line with the geese we 

 rushed out and let fly, as t'he startled birds rose, bringing down a 

 bird each We also brought down several birds as they passed over- 

 head earlier in the day, while later on we successfully stalked a large 

 flock along a dry irrigation ditch. The bag totalled some dozen head 

 that day. 



Geese are hard birds to kill, being very tenacious of life. They 

 will often fly for long distances, though severely wounded. When a 

 flock has been fired at, the marksman should always watch it out of 

 sight, and, if he sees one bird leave the rest, he may know that it is 

 wounded, and, following it up, is likely to find it dead in the fields. 



As an example of this, take the following incident. I was out 

 hunting with my wife along the Fen Ho near Tai-yuan Fu. We had 

 been having good sport with hare and quail, and were returning to 

 our camp. Just as we crossed a dyke that ran along the edge of a 

 deep irrigation canal, we saw several lines of geese approach- 

 ing us. I ran back to the dyke, and crouched behind it till 

 the geese were directly overhead, when I fired, first at one goose and 

 then at another in rapid succession. The line continued unbroken for 

 a bit, but presently I noticed one bird break away and fly across the 

 river. It, described a wide circle as it slowly descended, and finally 

 struck the ground, rolling over and over. Marking the spot I hurried 

 back to send a man to fetcb my goose. There ensued an argument as 

 to where the goose was, my wife declaring it to be in one direction, 

 while I was equally positive that it was in another. We decided to 

 send the man to both places, and to our surprise and delight he re- 

 turned wi.th two geese. Both my shots had told, and my wife had 

 watched one of the wounded birds, while I watched the other. 



On another occasion I fired at a flock of geese with my rifle. I saw 

 the dust caused by the bullet striking the ground beyond the geese, 



