58 THE GREY LAG-GOOSE. 
when hard pressed fairly well, though they cannot keep long 
undeg water ; but neither in walking nor swimming (though in 
both less awkward, for they are less paunchy birds than the 
domestic Goose) do they show to any great advantage. 
When moving any considerable distance they fly high and 
usually in a single line, or in a V, with the point foremost ; but 
when merely changing ground, they often fly in an irregular 
flock. 
They are met with in parties of all sizes, from a single pair 
to more than a thousand, but flocks of from thirty to a 
hundred are most commonly seen in Upper India. All our 
Geese prefer rivers to tanks and lakes, but of all the species 
the Grey Lag is least rarely seen about these latter. 
Geese, Crane, and Mallard, shy and wild as they are as a 
tule inland, are easily killed on all our larger rivers. During 
the hotter parts of the day they are, as already mentioned, 
generally found in larger or smaller parties, dozing in the 
sun, on some sandbank, at the water’s edge, or, in the case 
of the Cranes, standing asleep in the water near some such 
bank. Directly such a party is sighted, you take a small boat, 
and with the aid of a couple of experienced men, row or punt 
noiselessly down to within two or three hundred yards of 
the birds, when, if the water intervening is shallow enough 
to allow it, (and the boatmen seem to know this by instinct) 
one man gets quietly out of the boat behind, and while 
you and your companion in the boat lie down out of sight, 
he, stooping so as to be entirely concealed by the boat, 
pushes it down gently and noiselessly, aided by the stream, 
towards the flock. In this way you may approach, if all is 
well managed, to within twenty yards of even Cranes. You make 
some arrangement at the bows, (I had a false gunwale screwed 
on with suitable holes pierced in it,) soas to admit of peeping 
and shooting, without raising your head into view, and when 
you get to what you consider the right distance, knock over 
as many you can sitting, with the first shot, and as many more 
as you have time for, before they get out of shot, after they 
rise. Everything depends on judging rightly the distance for 
the first shot, with reference to your bore and charge. A 
little too far, you wound a score, without perhaps bagging one; 
a little too near, and you kill one or two outright, and though 
you perhaps get two or three more as they rise, that is all ; 
but if you use agood heavy duck gun, say No. 8 bore, with 
two ounces of A. A., and fire at about fifty yards, you will rarely 
get less than eight out of a good large flock of Geese (and 
I have got as many as sixteen) with the first shot, besides a 
brace or so more, with green cartridge, as they rise. 
In England, where the Wild Geese are so wary, it seems odd 
enough that these birds should have been selected as types 
of stupidity ; but here when thus worked they are the tamest of 
