206 FIELD SHOOTING. 



was twenty-three. That was in a corn-field where the 

 corn was in shock, and I shot from such a blind as 

 I have described above. It was near Elkhart, and 

 on one of those wet, misty days in the spring on 

 which the Canada geese are flying about and feed- 

 ing all day. I generally use No. 1 shot for geese. 

 It is quite large enough with plenty of powder to 

 drive it home. In shooting geese from a blind 

 the shooter must keep quite still until they are 

 near enough. When he has killed, he must pick 

 up the goose and return to his blind. 



When young wheat is among the corn-shocks, 

 the small grain having been sown the previous fall, 

 it is a favorite resort for wild geese. A live de- 

 coy — a wild goose that was winged, and which has 

 been saved for the purpose — may be staked out in 

 the field, and the geese will come down to it. In 

 the fields of early spring wheat, where there are no 

 corn-shocks, there are sometimes many geese. They 

 eat off the green plants, and the farmers, thinking 

 them an intolerable nuisance, used to put up scare- 

 crows, as people do in some parts to keep away 

 swamp blackbirds and crows from young springing 

 corn. In such a wheat-field the shooter may dig 

 a hole, and, smoothing over the ground, get into 

 it and wait for the geese. If it is too wet for that, 



