VIII. 



THE WILD GOOSE. 



MANY who have never made his acquaintance 

 think the goose is not a game bird. But one 

 need not know him very well to feel that he is 

 quite worthy of his fire. Few birds are better 

 judges of the range of a gun, few eyes much 

 quicker than his to detect any suspicious motion 

 and see through a flimsy blind. Nor are there 

 many sounds that awake more tender thoughts 

 than the deep-toned Honk, whether falling afar 

 from the sky as the goose floats away south in 

 disdain of all your quarter of the universe, or 

 sounding clear and penetrating above your tent 

 as he passes in the dead of night, or rolling 

 toward every corner of the sky as the flock 

 sheers, whirls, and rises when you move in the 

 pit or blind. 



The wild goose has been widely distributed 



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