THE WILD GOOSE. 319 



but one opinion then prevails, that the author would have 

 qualified his expression had lie been familiar with his 

 subject, for a keener, wilder, and a more difficult bird to 

 bring to bag does not exist. The manner of hunting 

 them depends somewhat on the variety at hand, and more 

 particularly upon the country and the season of the 

 year. 



The sportsman who starts in search of a fortnight's 

 shooting at geese nowadays would, in almost all proba- 

 bility, make Dakota or Nebraska his objective point, and 

 the fall of the year the time. The varieties he would 

 encounter in those States would be mostly the Hutchins, 

 Canadas, white geese, and a sprinkling of the white- 

 fronted geese. The white geese are seldom made a 

 sole object of pursuit by Western sportsmen. Unlike the 

 Canadas, they do not decoy readily; and although always 

 found associating with the Canada and Hutchins geese, 

 are more uncertain in their habits, and those I have shot 

 have been brought to bag more by some fortunate circum- 

 stance than any particular skill on my part. They are 

 strikingly handsome birds when flocked in large numbers, 

 and I know of nothing that will delight a sportsman's 

 eyes more than a sight at 1,000 or more of them sit- 

 ting upon some prairie knoll that has been burned 

 over and blackened, or when they are circling over some 

 stubble-tield on a bright, sunny afternoon. 



One early morning, some five years ago, I lay in a 

 stubble-field located about two miles west of White Lake, 

 Aurora County, S. Dak., waiting the expected arrival 

 of the Canada geese for breakfast. Around me were 

 clustered a dozen profile Canada geese decoys and one 

 lone white goose decoy the latter a sample from the 

 manufacturers. As the sun rose above the low eastern 

 bank of the lake, a long, glistening white line arose from 

 the lake and bore down in my direction. On they came 



