86 THE BARRED-HEADED GOOSE. 
“The best plan of all is undoubtedly to shoot them after 
dusk, or by moon-light. To be successful, it is necessary to 
ascertain beforehand where they go to feed at night. The 
villagers will readily give this information, but it is just as well 
to know that shallow, weedy jhils, with a foreshore of mud 
and slush, are favourite resorts, especially if the corn fields 
around them are nice and green. Having taken up his position 
on the mud at sunset (their foot-prints and feathers will indicate 
the spot where they generally settle) all the sportsman has to 
do is to await their arrival patiently. They will soon put in an 
appearance, and as gang after gang arrives and hovers above 
him within easy shot, he will only have himself to blame if he 
does not massacre them right and left. In this way, with an 
ordinary gun, I have shot as many as thirty between sunset and 
7-30 P.M.” 
Prjevalski indicates yet another method by which these Geese 
may be shot, which I confess never occurred to me, though 
I have attracted Black Buck in this way. He says:— 
“This Goose is also very curious, and I several times shot it 
by performing the following manceuvre—As soon as I noticed 
a pair flying, I at once lay down on the ground and commenced 
waving my hat at them, The Geese came usually quite close 
to me then. Altogether it is very tame; but when pursued 
much by men, it gets very shy.” 
Indian sportsmen who try this plan will oblige me greatly 
by reporting the results. 
The note of the Barred-headed Goose is quite distinct from 
that of the Grey Lag. It is sharper, harder, less sonorous, and 
more strident. I hardly know how to put it in words, but it. is 
so distinct that you can never doubt, even when the flock is 
passing over head high in air, during the night, to which species 
it belongs. The two species never mingle companies ; you may 
see half a dozen of the one, along with a flock of the other, 
but whether feeding, sleeping, swimming, or flying, the parties 
keep a little apart. 
Like the Grey Lag this present species rarely takes to the 
water unless disturbed, but whether flying, walking, or swim- 
ming, it is a lighter built, more graceful and more active bird than 
the other ; and though perhaps easier to stalk, it is much more 
difficult to drive, or walk up to a given spot, than the Grey Lag. 
I have often had them in captivity ; but although at the Delhi 
Gardens and at one are two other places I have known them to 
live for years, they do not stand the heat so well as the Grey 
Goose, and they never, I think, become quite so tame as these 
latter, which, once they get to know you, will trot about awk- 
wardly at your heels like a lap-dog. None of the Geese of this 
species that I have ever had, have laid in captivity. 
My late, much lamented friend, Mr. Damant, drew attention 
to the curious habit, which I have already noticed in the case of 
