THE WILD GOOSE. 12? 



shot tell, for even when quite tame the Canada 

 goose displays a shocking lack of patience when a 

 gentleman attempts to find his distance by trial. 

 He has also a very impolite way of carrying with 

 him, even in the most compact flock, a vast 

 amount of circumambient space that hungers for 

 lead in a manner quite amazing. Zip zecoooooo 

 goes the ball, glancing from the very center of 

 the flock, with the Wiff wiff wiff wiff wiff of 

 heavy wings throbbing on your ear, and a medley 

 of white, black, and gray rising into the sky 

 without leaving a feather on the green. But if 

 you have gauged the distance rightly and held 

 the sights of the rifle closely on the center of a 

 single goose, you may hear perhaps a dull tliup, 

 and, as the rest of the flock starts skyward on 

 reverberating wing, you may see a gray body 

 stretched on the sod as if smitten with a thunder- 

 bolt hissing hot from the hand of Jove. 



Better than wandering over the plain in search 

 of shots is to sit behind a bush or tree that nods 

 on the bank of some pond where geese spend the 

 day. If convenient, have sticks in the water at 

 different points, and have the rifle-sights adjusted 

 to them by trial before the geese begin to come 



