Forest and Stream 
$3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, fl.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1913 
VOL. LXXX.—No. If!. 
127 Franklin St., New York 
“Shooting the Wary Old Canada*’ 
H ave you ever indulged in a mid-winter 
goose hunt out on the icy old Platte? 
I have many and many a time in the misty 
old past, and much health and much happiness 
have I enjoyed therefrom, and I hope to ex¬ 
perience the thrills of many another such a hunt, 
although year by year the chances are growing 
slimmer. 
All day the wary old Canadas are off on 
the winter wheat, alfalfa or barren cornfields, 
and when they come in to the river, in the early 
dusk is the best time of all. They are up and 
off in the mornings, in these latter days, while 
the stars are still spangling the firmament, much 
By SANDY GRISWOLD 
too early for even the hardiest and gamest of 
the old wildfowlers. 
I was out with Sam Richmond a few years 
ago, Ray Welch and T, and that was the last 
winter goose hunt that I have ventured upon. 
We had a snug blind in the tall pampas grass 
that for some reason or other has always grown 
on Crook’s Island in the Platte, east of Clarks, 
and while we saw several distant flocks of geese 
during the cold, bleak day, not a bird came into 
our decoys, except a pair of American mer¬ 
gansers which, I regret to say, we needlessly killed. 
Rut we stuck it out until evening; in fact, did not 
,£rct away from the tow-head till well after dark. 
It was intensely cold, but with the sky only 
partially clouded over and just as the dimmed 
sun began to lower toward the crimsoned west¬ 
ern horizon, big, black, ragged clouds, heavy with 
snow, began to thrust themselves into view, and 
we became avid with eager expectation, for Sam 
said the geese were bound to come. More and 
more lowering grew the skies, and flurries of 
big, dry flakes soon began to fill the air. The 
sun down, the cutting wind turned into a fierce 
gale, and swept with shrill cries across the vast 
expanse of snow-covered ice, under which the 
rushing waters added their muffled roar. 
"There they come!" cried Sam at last, and 
CANADA GEESE. 
