538 The Water-fowl Family 



than a bush, of which they soon become shy when 

 there is much shooting out of them. Nor have I 

 ever seen the time when it was safe to show much 

 of your hat, while a few inches of shining gun 

 moved a little so as to have it ready, were always 

 quite certain to make geese sheer off just a little 

 too much. Equally fatal was too much craning 

 of your neck to see if they were coming, and too 

 much wiggling about to get in just the right posi- 

 tion for the supreme moment. I always found 

 the best results from keeping perfectly still until 

 the heavy wiff, idiff, wiff of wings was just over 

 me, and then depend upon quickness in springing 

 into position to shoot. 



In most places a natural blind and without de- 

 coys will no longer do, and one must dig a pit in 

 the ground and have plenty of decoys, though this 

 is tame beside the other way. Like any shooting 

 that becomes too easy one soon tires of it, but it 

 is now the only sure way to get a goose. Such 

 methods as shooting from a wagon with horses in 

 full run are no longer possible, for the goose will 

 not allow a wagon to come near enough for the 

 final dash. But for warming up the inner thrill 

 department it had no equal. It needed only a 

 light wagon with a pair of lively mustangs used 

 to the badger-holes of the plain, with a fearless 

 driver and a man with the gun that could stay in 

 the wagon and shoot at the same time. The 



