SOME ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIENCES 121 



flock which had visited the field on the previous day. They 

 came in precisely the same manner as the others, except that 

 they passed me a long shot. I fired with the 8-bore and 

 brought one down broken-winged. Another, hard hit, carried 

 on out of sight. Now I had also learned that if the geese 

 once alighted and no one was there to drive them towards me, 

 they would, on detecting my presence, rise and depart for that 

 day without giving me a chance ; thus a long shot was better 

 than none. When a suitable field on the wolds is discovered 

 by wild geese, they generally frequent it greedily at the outset, 

 and thus from the numbers which come up after one lot has 

 been leads one to think the flocks carry the news to each other. 

 To the gunner the circumstances seem strange, since for some 

 apparently unaccountable reason all the flocks will pay the 

 quarter a visit on the same day. No doubt, the habit of follow- 

 ing the flight-line of the first flock, as is customary with wild- 

 fowl, explains to some extent the reason for such behaviour. 

 On the day in question this state of aff'airs certainly occurred, 

 and, although I had not fired a shot at a goose that season 

 until the date of my narrative, I bagged no less than seven 

 of these fine birds before nine a.m. Another was picked up 

 by a farmer friend, who sent it on to me the same evening. 



Many mornings after this I visited the same spot. Several 

 geese came, but never, strange to say, in the same numbers as 

 on my lucky day. I did not afterwards secure more than 

 one shot in a morning that season, but before the geese had 

 deserted the ground I had an aggregate score of seventeen 

 geese entered in my diary. In noting my best morning's shot 

 I fully realised the advantage of being on the spot at the time 

 when the geese "take on" to a newly found stubble. They 

 are erratic in their movements at times, but doubtless have 

 good reasons for their movements. 



The pink-footed goose, after feeding on the Yorkshire 

 Wolds, is fairly good eating. The young birds are best ; they 



