118 THE RESTORATION OF WILD FOWL 



of Norfolk, Plymouth and Barnstable Counties. Mr. Ware 

 says: "Barring one stand near Portland and one on the 

 shores of Quincy Bay by salt water, I know of no other 

 places outside of this comparatively small district where 

 wild fowl are taken in this way, but from Ponkapog, 

 hardly a dozen miles from Boston, a skirmish line of 

 shooting stands on the shores of the diifferent ponds 

 stretches across the path of the Southerly migration of 

 the birds as far east as Wellfleet far out on Cape Cod. 



"The best opportunities usually come when the birds 

 have been driven off their outside course by the heavy 

 North Easterly storms of the Fall and early Winter, 

 which send them inland, heavy winged and astray. . . . 

 This is without doubt the spot they have sought, and, 

 honking and quacking in grateful salutation, they set 

 their tired wings and circle down. The sounds of wel- 

 come redouble in volume as they approach the surface 

 of the pond, and in a moment, as if unable longer to await 

 their coming, a flock of earlier arrivals in that haven of 

 refuge swings out from the shadow of the woods like a 

 committee of reception to greet them."* 



Mr. Ware regards the geese as far more interesting 

 than the ducks and says many of the birds develop 

 marked individualities of their own in addition to the 

 habits common to all of them. 



"The goose 'callers' are either wild birds which have 

 been captured and domesticated or birds more than a 

 year old born in captivity from wild stock. The 'flyers' 

 are born in captivity, of course, and the keeping up of the 

 supply of goose 'flyers,' the most picturesque element in 



*"In the Woods and on the Shore." By Richard H. Ware. L. C. Pnge 

 & Co., Boston. 



