246 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
wood they can find, in order to produce as much glare as 
possible. When the geese see this, they rise in the air in 
vast clouds and honk their alarm, but, instead of fleeing, 
they hover over the treacherous beacons until many of 
them are brought down by the concealed fowlers, or the 
noise of the prolonged shooting scares them away. I 
heard of a man in Dakota who filled his wagon with 
birds in two hours by this method; and of another, in 
Minnesota, who killed three thousand in ten days; but 
such work is slaughter, not sport, and I refer to it simply 
to show how numerous the geese are in some portions of 
the country. Killing the birds in this manner is heavy 
labor, and often the cause of disease, as the men are lia- 
ble to catch severe colds, or be seized with an attack of 
rheumatism that may cling to them for life. Sink-box 
shooting is also most disagreeable work, as the weather is 
often severe enough to almost freeze the wild-fowlers into 
inanimate statues, and they dare not lift hand or foot for 
fear of scaring the birds away. The result is, that they 
are sometimes so benumbed that they cannot handle their 
weapons, and so stiff from lying in a cramped position 
on a very hard bed, that they can hardly move for some 
time after emerging from their coffin. 
Wild geese are exceedingly abundant along the Missouri 
River from October to December, but about the first or 
the middle of the latter month they begin to seek a more 
genial climate. Their honking may then be heard at all 
hours of the day and night, as they move southward in 
heavy V and W-shaped lines. They are, as arule, in their 
winter quarters by Christmas, and from that time until 
the following spring the bays, lakes, and rivers of Florida, 
Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and the con- 
tiguous regions, fairly teem with them. They seldom 
alight in woods when they rest during their migrations, 
unless they are very weary or have lost their way in the 
fog; but when they do, they produce a tremendous up- 
