GEESE 275 



With the aid of a driver or two I have now and again 

 scored several highly pleasing double shots with 12-bore 

 guns at these fine and wary grey geese. The heaviest 

 shot I remember to have made inland was with a single 

 4-bore carrying 3^ oz. of A A. shot. On this occasion 

 I brought down five pink-footed geese that were driven 

 past me at 96 yards' range the distance being verified 

 afterwards by means of a surveyor's chain. At that 

 lengthy range I was surprised to find three of the geese 

 cut down just as one sees partridges on driving days 

 doubled up at 20 yards' distance ; but this was fully 

 accounted for on discovering that the penetrative force 

 of the large shot had been sufficient to pierce completely 

 the bodies of these heavy birds. I was applauding 

 myself somewhat over the success of this shot as I 

 proceeded to pick up the slain, but so soon as my 

 Irish driver appeared on the scene a slightly different 

 complexion was put upon the affair. This man, not 

 long over from the wilds of Mayo, rushing up, breath- 

 less and intensely excited, proudly exclaimed : " Sure, 

 your 'anner, an' isn't that the way to drive geese ? " 

 Naturally, I then realized that there might be two ways 

 in which to regard the undertaking. Poor Patrick 

 Morley, he drove me many geese thereafter, it being 

 invariably recognized that he was the principal player 

 in those acts. 



The shooting of grey geese by night has always had 

 peculiar fascination for me. I have sat for hours to- 

 gether in the reed-beds, or in a blind on a bleak muddy 

 island out in a northern estuary, waiting for these fowl 

 to come along. At such times the only sounds might 

 possibly be the lapping of the ebbing tide or the 

 " churr," " churr " of some belated dunlin. At length, 



