286 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



sight, without theii- noticing his slight movements. 



The advance of civilization has great effect on Canada 

 Geese. The draining of the places where they were 

 wont to feed, on their flights from the Mississippi, hav- 

 ing deprived them of the luxury of bulbous roots which 

 they like so well as a dessert, after filling their greedy 

 selves with barley, buckwheat and corn, has driven 

 them to a great degree from the Mississippi Valley to 

 the Missouri slope, and to the open and exposed fields 

 of Nebraska and Dakota. At this late day, one is not 

 warranted in expecting to find goose-shooting sufii- 

 ciently good on the Mississippi as to hunt for them and 

 them alone, and those that are now killed are shot by 

 duck-hunters while in pursuit of that species of water- 

 fowl. 



The best time to shoot them is in the spring, when 

 in making their periodical migrations they stop for a 

 short time for rest and food. The warm sun late in 

 March, or early in April, melts the ice in little slougha 

 and bayous, swelling the rushing floods from creeks 

 and ravines, all commingling with the river. The 

 river rises a little — ^the snow melts on the banks and 

 trickles down, the ice parts from the shore, and soon 

 a surging, crushing mass of ice fills the. river with floes 

 of all sizes and descriptions, their snowy edges peering- 

 up in the bright sun, while, peeping through these 

 drifting cakes, occasional streaks and spots of dark blue 

 can be seen, as the water ripples plainly out in view. 

 At such times as these, the geese will alight on a float- 

 ing cake of ice, aiid with an old gander on picket duty 

 will sleepily and lazily drift down with the strong cur- 

 rent, seeming to enjoy the warm sun, the circling 

 ducks, the crushing ice, and the rattling banks, as they 



