Geese 



appreciate the expression "a wild goose chase" who has not 

 hunted them. The goose is by no means the dolt tradition says 

 it is. The ordinary methods of hunting water-fowl do not 

 answer with it, and in different parts of the country a different 

 ruse is practiced to secure its flesh. Strangely enough, ducks 

 and geese alike, that are thrown into a state of panic at sight of a 

 man or dog, show no fear whatever of cows; and taking advan- 

 tage of this fact, gunners often hide behind cattle, or lead a horse 

 or an ox to get within range. On the great plains and in Cali- 

 fornia, oxen trained for the purpose screen the hunters on horse- 

 back, and walk straight into the flocks of Canada, snow, and 

 laughing geese that have been lured by live or artificial decoys 

 placed in some good feeding ground. Geese are not only gre- 

 garious, but extremely sociable to their kin and to other birds as 

 quick to take alarm as they. A constant gabbling goose-talk is 

 overheard wherever they congregate, like members of a country 

 sewing society. 



And yet these wary creatures have been successfully domes- 

 ticated and crossed with the common barnyard goose. Many 

 stories are in circulation of wild geese that have been wounded, 

 and placed among the farmer's fowls, where they have been 

 made well and apparently content until a flock of migrants, 

 passing above, called them to a wild life again ; but the very 

 birds that could be easily identified by the scars of old wounds, 

 revisited the barnyard whenever their travels to and from the 

 south permitted. All geese become strongly attached to cer- 

 tain localities. Ordinarily, a goose that has been wounded in the 

 wing runs, if on land, but so awkwardly it may be quickly over- 

 taken. If wounded when above or on the water, it will dive, 

 and remain under the surface with only its nostrils exposed until 

 all danger is over. Unless seriously hurt, it generally eludes cap- 

 ture. The thick coat of feathers, that have an even greater com- 

 mercial value than its flesh, is the goose's suit of armor, impene- 

 trable except at close range. 



When surprised, a flock rises suddenly in great confusion ; 

 the large birds get in one another's way and offer the easiest 

 shots the tvro ever gets; the honk, honk, k'woiik from many 

 outstretched throats clamoring at once mingles with the roar of 

 wings, as with slow, heavy, labored flight the geese rise against 

 the wind — the point from which they must be approached if one 



139 



