WILD-GOOSE SHOOTING 155 



but seven birds, which fell from the tail-end of the 

 gaggle. 



Although, from the punt-gunner's point of view, 

 grey geese may justly be considered disappointing 

 birds to follow on the coast, they nevertheless afford 

 splendid sport to the inland shoulder-gunner, and in 

 exposed localities there is, of course, great difficulty 

 in approaching them. In olden days various devices 

 were practised by fowlers, among which the stalking- 

 horse or cow perhaps was the most common method. 

 The presence of cattle or horses on the marshes 

 being familiar sights to geese which gave them no 

 grounds for suspecting treachery, fowlers were wont 

 to avail themselves of a trained living animal or its 

 artificial representation, constructed either of leather 

 or canvas, for the purpose of circumventing them. 

 In this way, by hiding behind the dummy, they 

 gradually stole nearer and nearer, step by step, until 

 the geese were well within range of their guns, when 

 they fired at them. Colonel Hawker mentions an 

 instance, in his ' Instructions to Young Sportsmen,' 

 when he stalked a gaggle of geese in this way with a 

 large gun, by taking one of the horses from a plough 

 team and walking up to them under cover of the 

 horse's flank. Whether the wild goose of the present 

 day is possessed of a higher degree of intelligence 



