WILD-GOOSE SHOOTING 165 



escape. But such is not the case, and as many as 

 ten geese and fifty-three gulls have been captured in 

 one reach of nets. It is interesting to note that the 

 takes of geese have of recent years fallen off consider- 

 ably, which may be attributed to the fact that the 

 geese of the present generation have grown wiser than 

 their ancestors. 1 



The records which have been kept at Holkham 

 for many years are very interesting. The first goose 

 mentioned in the game-book was killed in 1834, and 

 the second in 1841. From 1834 to 1860 the ' Diary' 

 contains no entries of great bags ; but this was simply 

 owing to the fact that the geese were seldom shot at. 

 It is said, however, that there were far more geese at 

 Holkham in those days than at the present time. On 

 December 26, 1860, forty-four geese were killed in one 

 day, and 138 in the season. Again, on December 26, 

 1870, fifty-eight geese were killed by five guns on the 

 Marsh Farm, and on the same day two guns obtained 

 twenty-two on a marsh adjoining, making a total 

 of eighty. In that year the season's bag amounted 



1 Geese are occasionally taken in small pits dug for the 

 purpose. A pit is made of such a size that the goose once in 

 it has not room to open its wings wide enough to fly, and thus 

 becomes cut off from all possibility of escape. The bird over- 

 balances itself in an effort to obtain the corn placed just a 

 few inches beyond its reach with which the pit is baited. ED. 



