THE GAME APPROACHES. 65 



producers of it. All who have shot wild fowl at 

 home or in America can never forget the honk ! 

 honk ! of the wild goose ; and with what anxiety 

 and increased rapidity of circulation of his blood 

 has he not waited for this most wary of all feathered 

 game to come within range ! If you are not well 

 concealed, and even then do but move, although it 

 may be so far on in the dusk as almost to be 

 black night, these suspicious birds are sure to see 

 you, when good-bye to all your hope for a shot 

 at the wily game that evening. 



Now the knob-billed goose (Sarkidiornis Afri- 

 cana] that I hear approaching does not honk, but 

 utters a weak, effeminate bark, such as might be sup- 

 posed to come from the throat of the most diminutive 

 pampered cur that ever disgraced a carriage or made a 

 visit to wealthy maiden aunt unendurable. But this 

 difference of voice does not affect this species' wari- 

 ness ; no, not a bit of it, they are just the same 

 artful, tricky beasts as those that live in the Northern 

 Hemisphere. Knowing this, I kept quiet as still, 

 indeed, as the proverbial mouse and I considered my 

 chances were A i. At length I spied the faint outline 

 of the desired letter V. Gradually it became more 



