THE WILD GOOSE. 329 



come a few mornings or evenings in succession, he will 

 tell you that they are there every morning. You drive 

 out to his place, and find that only one flock has been 

 feeding on his farm any of the time, at which, perhaps, 

 you get an indifferent shot. It has taken a ten -mile 

 drive before daylight on a cold, frosty morning to learn 

 this, and as you slowly pick up your decoys, and place 

 your trappings in the buggy, you naturally fall to won- 

 dering if all men are liars, or are geese uncertain. As the 

 Bohemians say, ' ' I tank so. " 



So we go to the livery stable in the morning, and secure 

 a light driving team, with a buggy or wagon to match. 

 We will put in but one box of a dozen decoys to-day, for 

 the chances are exceedingly slim for an opportunity of 

 setting any of them up, or securing any shooting what- 

 ever. This is more of an exploring trip than anything 

 else, remember. If we find any geese this morning, they 

 will either be in the stubbles or corn, and too late to get to 

 work on them; but we will put in a couple of shovels, 

 for we may want to use them. 



We have traveled nearly all the morning, and most of 

 the geese we have seen have been on their way to the 

 river from their morning flight for food. You will 

 notice that they all fly in that peculiar drag-shape so 

 familiar from pictures you have seen. This is always 

 their manner of flight when bound for some particular 

 locality. When flying across the country in search of 

 food, with no definite spot in view, they move in a low, 

 sweeping, undulating line, and nearly abreast now ris- 

 ing high in the air at some suspicious object below, now 

 swerving down to within twenty feet of the ground, only 

 to arise again farther on, until lost to sight in the distant 

 horizon. 



The geese we have seen hurrying for a drink in the 

 river will be coming back again this afternoon. As this 



