SOME ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIENCES _ 121 
flock which had visited the field on the previous day. They 
came in precisely the same manner as the others, except that 
they passed me a long shot. I fired with the 8-bore and 
brought one down broken-winged. Another, hard hit, carried 
on out of sight. Now I had also learned that if the geese 
once alighted and no one was there to drive them towards me, 
they would, on detecting my presence, rise and depart for that 
day without giving me a chance; thus a long shot was better 
than none. When a suitable field on the wolds is discovered 
by wild geese, they generally frequent it greedily at the outset, 
and thus from the numbers which come up after one lot has 
been leads one to think the flocks carry the news to each other. 
To the gunner the circumstances seem strange, since for some 
apparently unaccountable reason all the flocks will pay the 
quarter a visit on the same day. No doubt, the habit of-follow- 
* ing the flight-line of the first flock, as is customary with wild- 
fowl, explains to some extent the reason for such behaviour. 
On the day in question this state of affairs certainly occurred, 
and, although I had not fired a shot at a goose that season 
until the date of my narrative, I bagged no less than seven 
of these fine birds before nine a.m. Another was picked up 
by a farmer friend, who sent it on to me the same evening. 
Many mornings after this I visited the same spot. Several 
geese came, but never, strange to say, in the same numbers as 
on my lucky day. I did not afterwards secure more than 
one shot in a morning that season, but before the geese had 
deserted the ground I had an aggregate score of seventeen 
geese entered in my diary. In noting my best morning’s shot 
I fully realised the advantage of being on the spot at the time 
when the geese ‘‘take on” to a newly found stubble. They 
are erratic in their movements at times, but doubtless have 
good reasons for their movements. 
The pink-footed goose, after feeding on the Yorkshire 
Wolds, is fairly good eating. The young birds are best; they 
