Goose-sbooting 221 



congregating in vast numbers. Here they are 

 exposed to slaughter by the Indians, who depend 

 upon them extensively at this season for food, 

 shooting them on the feeding-grounds at night. 

 Their habit of huddling together at the approach 

 of a light enables many to be killed at a single 

 shot. The young fly by the middle of August, 

 and early in October the first relays appear 

 within our boundary. While sharing the resorts 

 of other wild fowl they keep to themselves, usually 

 quiet; if excited or started from their roosting- 

 place, the din is inconceivable. The flight, in 

 lines, is strong and far out of range. As the vast 

 flocks pass overhead they whiten the sky and, 

 alighting, give the earth the appearance of snow. 

 No more impressive sight can be conceived than 

 the countless numbers of these birds covering the 

 prairie, — unfortunately, now a scene of the past. 

 Recently, the writer saw this goose in large flocks 

 in northern Mexico about May 10. They fre- 

 quented a large, shallow lake on the mesa. He 

 was informed that quite a number remained 

 throughout the summer, but according to the 

 natives never bred. This small remnant was 

 likely composed of barren geese. 



In the sections of North Dakota where this 

 goose is abundant in spring, at the first break of 

 dawn the flocks start for the feeding-ground, which 

 may be ten or fifteen miles from the lake on whose 



