Small Game Shooting 295 



barrels. As you plod on you hear another double 

 shot and turn sliarply, but the ducks are now 

 beyond your sight. Halt 1 What is that ? A line 

 of geese, grey geese, not the white and uneatable 

 variety. Are they to be stalked? For be it 

 known that the grey goose is a wily bird, hard 

 to kill as a Boer burgher behind the rocks of his 

 veldt. Anyhow it is worth a trial, so you tie the 

 spaniel — much to his dismay — to a sage-bush, 

 and stop his whimpering with a gentle cuff. Then, 

 flat on your stomach, you wriggle slowly towards 

 the thin grey line. Presently you stop, for as luck 

 would have it, a cowboy is riding near the geese. 

 They will let him come quite near, and he may 

 take a pop at them with his six-shooter. Then 

 the odds are they will fly over your head. Just 

 so. The geese rise majestically, and the old gander 

 leading them steers straight for the Polar Star. 

 The birds fly in a " V "-like wedge, one behind the 

 other, and you pick out the third on the left. By 

 Jove ! They must be higher up than you sup- 

 posed. You have hit the fourth. He comes sail- 

 ing down with a broken wing, and you give him 

 the second barrel as he tries to make off into the 

 rushes. What a superb bird it is ! 



The spaniel licks your hand as you untie him, 

 and smells delightedly the goose, which you hide 

 at the foot of the sage-bush. There is now a big 

 piece of shallow water in front of you covered 

 with widgeon. These you flush for the benefit of 

 those behind you. They rise far out of range and 

 presently you hear a fusillade from the north. 

 Here they come back again. You are snug behind 



