CHAPTER V 



GOOSE-SHOOTING 

 ON THE BAYS 



IN dealing with the wild goose the gunner is 

 confronted with a bird of extraordinary cunning ; 

 accustomed to man's methods from his gosling 

 days, the older he gets the wiser he grows. His 

 undoing on occasions is due to the fact that some 

 of his relatives make shrewd decoys, and as such 

 have no conscience about making trouble for the 

 unshot members of the race. Probably the patri- 

 archs of learning and wisdom in the decoy line 

 come from down east, Boston way. In one or 

 two of the clubs there Canada geese are actually 

 trained to fly among the wild flock and bring it 

 toward the blind, where a welcome chorus from 

 the live decoys greets the strangers and alluring 

 honks bring them in. On Long Island there are 

 a few stands of live decoys, but Canada geese are 

 not as regular in their sojourn here as farther 

 south. In the brackish bays of North Carolina 

 they winter, vast hordes of them ; but even with all 

 the gunning this country is infested with, compar- 

 atively few fall victims. In the ordinary weather 



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