144 “thunder-pumpers.” 
larger than crows. They had long wings and 
legs.” 
“ Sorter dragged ’em after ’em as they flew ? ” 
he interrupted, and, reading an affirmative reply 
in her face, he announced : 
“ Them, ma’am ? Them’s bull-geese .” 1 
“ Oh— ah — did you never hear any other name 
for them ? ” she hesitatingly asked. 
“Wal, yes, I did once. There was a feller 
along here a spell ago that pretended to know a 
sight about everything, and he called ’em some- 
thing” and the old gentleman scratched his head 
thoughtfully; “but I can’t just recollect what it 
was. He found another kind of long-geared 
bird down about that flat — thunder-pumpers. 
They ain’t so big as the bull-geese, but they’re 
about as much set up, and I calculate they git 
their livin’ pretty much the same way.” 
“ I don’t recognize them by that name,” Mrs. 
Maxwell replied, “ though I presume I may have 
seen them.” 
“ Wal, maybe you’ve bin used to callin’ ’em 
shied-pokes, or stake-drivers. Both them names 
is pretty common fur ’em out here. You must’er 
heard ’em — they go boom, boom, boom ; make 
a sight of noise when they git at it.” 
“ Oh, I think I know what you mean : a yel- 
lowish-brown bird, with long head, neck and 
legs,” she said, as a vision of a newly-killed bit- 
tern flashed over her mind. 
