. Birds that hunt and are hunted : life histories of one hundred and seventy birds of prey, game birds and water-fowls . n the farmers fields, and the berries, grass, and leaf buds theyfind in swamps and bushy pastures. Quantities of gravel areswallowed with their food. After a good supper they return tothe water, preferably to a good-sized lake, to sleep, and there theyfloat about with head tucked under wing until daybreak, whenanother flight must be made inland to secure a breakfast. Thesetwo regular daily flights are characteristic of all the geese. Such punctuality at meals is confidently
. Birds that hunt and are hunted : life histories of one hundred and seventy birds of prey, game birds and water-fowls . n the farmers fields, and the berries, grass, and leaf buds theyfind in swamps and bushy pastures. Quantities of gravel areswallowed with their food. After a good supper they return tothe water, preferably to a good-sized lake, to sleep, and there theyfloat about with head tucked under wing until daybreak, whenanother flight must be made inland to secure a breakfast. Thesetwo regular daily flights are characteristic of all the geese. Such punctuality at meals is confidently reckoned upon bythe sportsman, who is thereby saved unnecessary waiting as hecrouches, cramped and cold, in a pit among the stubble and con-cealed by a blind. These holes are about thirty inches in diam-eter and about forty inches in depth. There are no birds withkeener, more suspicious eyes; no sentinel of a flock more on thealert, unless it be the sandhill crane, that often feeds with themand is their ally ; no game birds more wary when the sports-man tries to stalk them than these; and so no one can possibly 138. Geese appreciate the expression a wild goose chase who has nothunted them. The goose is by no means the dolt tradition saysit is. The ordinary methods of hunting water-fowl do notanswer with it, and in different parts of the country a differentruse is practiced to secure its flesh. Strangely enough, ducksand geese alike, that are thrown into a state of panic at sight of aman or dog, show no fear whatever of cows; and taking advan-tage of this fact, gunners often hide behind cattle, or lead a horseor an ox to get within range. On the great plains and in Cali-fornia, oxen trained for the purpose screen the hunters on horse-back, and walk straight into the flocks of Canada, snow, andlaughing geese that have been lured by live or artificial decoysplaced in some good feeding ground. Geese are not only gre-garious, but extremely sociable to their kin and to other birds as
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902
