194 



In Quest of 



his kind and comes to the trained decoys; 

 and on the prairies a deep pit with wounded 

 birds tied to stakes all about it and honking 

 to their fellows will sometimes brine him 



^ y\ near enough for a quick shot. But these 



<V 



unfair advantages are in themselves a con- 

 fession of man's failure; since by his own 

 wit and aided by modern firearms he is 

 no longer able to contend with the wit of a 

 goose. 



Elsewhere, especially in the great wheat- 

 fields of the Southwest, there is a humorous 

 confession of man's impotence and Wap- 

 tonk's superiority in the queer "goose cav- 

 alry," — horsemen that go shooting and 

 shouting about to frighten away from the 

 growing wheat the thronging thousands of 

 wild geese that cannot be circumvented or 

 destroyed. And the most ridiculous thing 

 in the whole proceeding is that the goose 

 cavalryman must fume and fret under the 

 thought that the exasperating birds under- 

 stand him perfectly. They feed and gabble 

 away serenely, paying no more serious heed 

 to him than to any other scarecrow, until 



