CANADA GOOSE. 255 
suddenly changed from mild to severe cold, their pursuit 
will be found comparatively useless; but in the afternoon 
and morning in early winter, or at the commencement of 
spring, if the sportsman secrete himself in some lonely, out- 
of-the-way corn-field, he is almost certain to obtain numer- 
ous shots. Still it is very rare for a day to be passed on 
the prairies wild fowl shooting without an opportunity oc- 
curring to fire into a flock of wild geese. 
SS 
CANADA GOOSE, 
If maimed birds are kept, or the young reared in captiv- 
ity, they answer magnificently as decoys; for not a flock 
of wild geese or wild duck will pass within seeing or hear- 
ing of them without leaving their course to join their ranks. 
An old gander, as may be expected, is tough and hard; 
but the young bird, on the contrary, is a great delicacy, 
and well worth any amount of labor it may have cost to 
obtain. 
In November, ’65, in an afternoon and morning shooting, 
a friend and self killed eighty-five wild geese, as well as a 
large number of duck. The scene of this performance was 
a corn-field, the weather bitterly cold, with snow flying, al- 
