CANADA GOOSE-SHOOTING. 285 



over one's head, perhaps thirty yards high, facing a 

 moderately strong wind ; false, in almost every other 

 way. They are swift of flight, and when a single goose 

 comes down wind in a hurry to meet an appointment, 

 or to get there ahead of some companion who has gone 

 by some other route, a train of cars going forty-five 

 miles an hour is slow compared with the speed such a 

 goose will travel. Let a goose travel in that way low 

 down, say ten or twenty feet from the ground, how 

 will the amateur judge his distance, and how to shoot? 

 He sees a big body going along swiftly ; it seems to 

 him the bird is going at a lively rate, still, he recalls 

 how he has seen their lumbering forms buffeting against 

 a strong wind, or how he has seen them hovering over 

 the corn-fields, and it doesn't seem to him they can fly 

 fast if they tried; besides, the goose being not far 

 from the ground, seems so very close to him, he sees 

 the black neck and head, thinks the bird not over 30 

 to 35 yards, holds possibly a foot, may be two feet, 

 ahead of him and fires. Of course he misses, for the 

 bird is fully 50 yards from him, and going like the wind. 

 He ought to hold fully four feet ahead. They are the 

 most deceptive bird that flies to judge their distance, 

 and always look from twenty to forty yards nearer than 

 they actually are. This is caused by their great size, 

 and the position the shooter is placed in. He must 

 always be well hid, frequently in a cramped or strained 

 position peering through the blind on the bow of his boat, 

 peeping from behind an old log, squinting through a 

 clump of bushes, or lying flat on his back, trying to 

 catch side glances of the coming bird, by sighting over 

 the bridge of his nose, while he writhes around on the 

 ground serpent-like, trying to always keep the geese in 



