WILD GEESE. 247 
roar, as if they were encouraging one another or holding 
an animated debate on their future course of action. 
When they seem to have agreed on a certain point, the 
creeaunk of some sturdy gander may then be heard above 
the gabbling din of the others, as if he were giving a 
peremptory decision on the subject. They fly rather low 
in windy, rainy, and murky weather. That is the time 
for sportsmen to make big bags in flight shooting, espe- 
cially if they have a good place of concealment. The 
shot most generally used is No. 1, though B and BB are 
very popular with some of the most experienced wild- 
fowlers on the Continent, but others think that nothing 
will compare with a rifle, especially in fine weather, 
when the birds keep high in the air, or where they have 
been shot at so much that they carefully avoid the 
vicinity of fences and thickets, and even look with sus- 
picion upon a bundle of straw in the stubble. Some per- 
sons dwelling along the sea-shore sail to geese in a small 
yacht or a large boat, and use punt-guns for destroying 
them. Their first effort is to get to the windward of a 
gaggle, in order to have the wind and sea in their favor 
for shooting, and to be able to obtain wing shots when 
the birds rise from the water. The best bags are gener- 
ally made before and after a storm, but, if the waves 
are not too heavy, large numbers may also be killed dur- 
ing the prevalence of a stiff gale, as the birds seem to be 
in a bewildered condition at that time, and allow the 
boat to come quite close before they attempt to fly away. 
A punt-gun is not considered a legitimate weapon among 
gentlemen, so it is relegated to the craft of the market- 
hunter. Many men who look with a species of mild 
horror on punting, do not hesitate to kill geese and 
ducks from sneak-boats, and so far did they carry this 
system of destruction that some of the Western States 
have had to pass a law prohibiting the killing of wild. 
fowl by means of any floating device, whether it be a 
