"WILDFOWLING IN THE WILDERNESS. 



377 



they are " — was Vasquez's verdict, as he slowly shut up the 

 glass after a long and particular survey of the distant 

 foreshore. The words were spoken sadly, as though solilo- 

 quizing, for the Grey Lag is altogether too wary and 

 supicious a bird to fall readily into the snare of the 

 fowler. Earely indeed is it possible, by this stratagem,* 

 to approach within the short range which alone is fatal — ■ 

 forty yards is the maximum for these ironclads, and twenty- 

 five much more desirable. Except when in very small 

 numbers — twos and threes together — it is barely worth 

 while to attempt a stalk ; our friends only undertook the 

 operation under protest, saying it was a comproniiso — a 

 thing calculated to compromise their aucipial repute. 



'ANSERFS SON!" 



Ansercs son ! there, sure enough, on the utmost verge of 

 the plain, sits a straggling line with detached groups of 

 big, blue-grey forms, some slowly moving about, others 

 squatted on the ground or resting in various attitudes of 

 repose. Such big packs are inaccessible ; only once, that 

 winter, did we seem to be really on the road to success. 

 The bulk of the geese — some seventy in number — appeared 

 to be peacefully sleeping away the mid-day hours, some 



* That is, with two men behind the pony. We have since then, 

 going single-handed, occasionally succeeded in oiitwittmg even the 

 Grey Lag. 



