276 THE WILD FOWL. 



The Canada Goose is the common wild goose of 

 America, and it visits the southern waters and prairies 

 by hundreds of thousands. At night they generally 

 seek the bays or lakes, but by day they graze upon the 

 short grass of the prairies, preferring those spots where 

 the grass has been burnt off, and where the new grass 

 is greenest. 



They are easily killed from the saddle, and a sports- 

 man has little difficulty in riding to a flock when 

 grazing on the prairie, if he will only ride in a circle 

 around them, gradually diminishing the distance as he 

 inclines his horse towards them, the geese on their part 

 huddling up together. At the proper moment the 

 horse is halted, and a little hail-storm of five-and- 

 twenty small buckshot are rained upon the compact 

 mass of twenty or thirty geese, and the other barrel, 

 with a like charge, is worked at them when their wings 

 are extended to rise. This often proves more destruc- 

 tive than the first fire. 



When living at West Columbia, near the Brazos 

 Eiver, I killed, in less than four weeks, one hundred and 

 thirty-five geese, besides other game — deer, grouse,, 

 quail, ducks, snipe, &c. 



The White-Fronted Groose, and several other varieties 

 of the anseres, arrive about the same time, or a little 

 later. The two varieties mentioned, however, are the 

 most valuable as birds for the table. 



Two very large Cranes, the Whooping and the Sand- 



