342 
alarm, or, worse, a noise no more like a 
welcoming chuckle than the laugh of a 
hyena. The human voice can be used, 
by an apt mimic, better than any call 
I ever heard, but it requires practice and 
careful study from nature. Once, years 
ago, I actually criticised a goose. Two of 
us were out with decoys, on a balmy day 
in the fall. We had grown discouraged 
and thoughts of my pipe came to me. 
With my loaded gun across my lap I was 
in the act of filling my briar when the 
most wheezy, cracked ‘“‘Ah-unk”’ I ever 
heard broke the silence ; it sounded as 
if some one were trying to use a call that 
was all split up and wound with paper. 
“By Jove, Billy!” I exclaimed, “if I 
couldn’t call better than that, ’d’—— 
Just then I felt something fanning my 
ears, and looking up, here were two whop- 
ping old Canadas within five feet of my 
head, putting in their best licks to get 
away! No, I did not get them. I did not 
even shoot;.it completely paralyzed me. 
Sometimes flyway shooting is possible 
on windy days. If the geese have been 
feeding in one direction for some time 
and a strong wind has raised, which will 
be against their return, the opportunity 
should not be missed to conceal yourself 
somewhere along their line of flight, not 
too close to the lake. They will fly low 
against a high wind, and it is good fun to 
jump up on them as they come over. 
They will then try to climb, but the wind 
will hold them over you long:enough for 
you to get in both barrels. Note also 
that if the geese be flying with the wind, 
you should show yourself at forty yards, 
as they have to drift over in spite of them- 
selves. 
A very exciting way of approaching a 
flock you have spotted accidentally is to 
gallop down wind on them in a buggy. 
They have to face the wind to rise and 
as that is the direction you are coming 
from they become rattled and fear to get 
up until too late and you are in range. 
But this ruse is not often successful. 
When it is, it gives you a few moments to 
RECREATION 
be remembered. a lifetime, as I once heard 
it described, “ Bounding horses, bouncing 
buggy, bellowing driver and bewildered 
geese, bumpily bombarded by breech- 
loaders belching buckshot.” 7 
Laying for geese on the ice when they 
come in at night is unsportsmanlike and 
tends to drive them out of the country. 
Added to this the danger of breaking 
through and drowning, being shot at from 
the shore or dying of pneumonia, has 
caused the writer to cut this method out. 
He who gets a goose bystalking is a man 
of parts and deserves all he gets. Never 
is there an instant but several heads are 
up, and if all the heads come up at once, 
look out—they are ready to go. Crawling 
like a snake, using every unequality, push- 
ing a tumbleweed or Russian thistle in 
front of you, getting cramps in both legs 
and the pit of your stomach, plugging 
your gun barrels with mud at a critical 
moment, ducking suddenly to hide and 
getting a sharp stubble up your nose and 
thereby being simply obliged to sneeze, are 
some of the enjoyable by-products of a good 
stalk. If you get a goose they add an 
additional zest, and if you don’t you have 
something to remember the stalk by. 
My favorite load for geese is No. 1 
chilled, propelled by all the powder your 
gun will shoot satisfactorily. B B’s may 
occasionally reach farther, but their chances 
of hitting are correspondingly less. Smaller 
shot for close range are even better; at 
forty yards sixes lodged in the neck are 
fatal enough, but for an all-round load 
at all distances No. 1 is the best. If you are 
a good rifle shot by all means take a rifle 
along, as one often gets a chance for a 
long range shot where it is impossible to 
get within shotgun range. 
There are dozens of other tricks and turns 
to be played upon occasion, but this article 
has already overflowed its banks to such 
an extent that methinks the editor will have 
to cut off the tail feathers. So, in conclusion, 
I will say, in the words of my old-time friend, 
Jack Holloway, ‘‘A goose, gentlemen, a 
wild goose, ought a be th’ American eagle!” 
