262 FEATHERED GAME 



have reason to be satisfied still and have had 

 your share. Though you have not killed your 

 forty or fifty geese, as they tell it in the West, 

 you are satisfied. I have noticed that the New 

 England gunner generally has to be satisfied 

 with smaller game returns than his western 

 brother receives for his efforts. 



I remember once coming upon a small flock 

 in their northward flight. They had just ar- 

 rived from the south and were sorely tired. 

 In the marsh where they had settled, the win- 

 ter's ice had swept away every vestige of cover 

 and not a stalk of the last season's rank-grow- 

 ing grass remained, save in a few spots well 

 above high water mark, where some scanty 

 brush and a thin fringe of salt hay was left 

 standing after winter's work. At my approach 

 thus unprotected the flock at once took wing 

 and scaled away long before I could get within 

 gun-shot. An hour passed, and chancing to 

 look in the direction in which they had gone I 

 saw the whole flock returning and about a mile 

 away. Nearer and nearer they came and I at 

 once hunted cover where there was none in the 

 flat stretch of mud and water. Five hundred 

 yards — four hundred — three hundred — and in 



