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THE WILD GOOSE IN NEBRASKA.BY C. A. J.HERE is, per-haps, no sportknown on thisContinent inwhich the skilland patience ofthe sportsmanare more severe-ly tested than inshooting wildgeese. Indeed,man’s intelli-gence is morenearly matchedby these birdsother wild creature.than by anyThe displays of theirinstinct would surpass belief were they notauthenticated beyond possible question.It is in evidence that flocks, both largeand small, following a chosen leader,though enveloped for days in impene-trable fogs, will yet hold steadily on theircourse along the Atlantic Coast and landwithout difficulty at the place intended,when the captain of a vessel, endowedwith what we call the superior intelligenceof man and supplied with every aid whichscience can furnish, errs in his reckoning,frequently becomes bewildered, and comesto land fifty miles from the point he hadexpected to reach.The memory of the wild goose is phe-nomenal. They appear to keen in mindfrom year to year specific localities, shun-ning them if they have been found dan-gerous, and making use of them in thecourse of their semi-annual flights. Backof Gaspé, in Canada, is a singular eleva-tion in the landscape. It is a conspicuouslandmark, and is of importance to guidesand hunters who visit that wild region.But the geese make use of it, too, for ithas long been observed that when theyreach this spot in their autumnal flightthey invariably change their course fromwest to south. The young birds are oftenobstinate in their desire to continue on tothe westward, but the older ones, so soonas they are above or abreast of this land-mark, invariably turn southward, and ifthe young do not promptly follow, turnand circle around them and compel themto take the course desired.Geese belong to the great family of mi-gratory birds, living in the North duringthe summer months and spending thewinter in the South. During their springflight northward they stop for some littletime, and in their autumnal southwardjourneys for several months, on the broadwheat fields and corn fields of many ofour Western States, where they frequentlygather in such numbers that any state-ment concerning them which should beeven approximately true would be re-garded as an exaggeration by personswho have never been there. It is a veryconservative remark, however, to say thatthey are found in some places in Nebraskain flocks of thousands and tens of thou-sands. In many sections, notably thenorthwestern portion of the State, theresidents do not estimate the size of aflock by numbers, but by indicating howlarge a space they would occupy when atrest. I was spending a night with anfarmer, near whose sod house I had beenshooting mallard duck. Just before darkhe came in and asked if I would like totry my hand on geese, adding that a good-sized flock had just alighted on the lakenot far away. I inquired how many hethought there were, and his reply was:“About four acres, I reckon.”But while their number is legion, com-paratively few are ever brought to bagby the average sportsman. It requires acareful study of their habits, togetherwith a patience almost Job-like, to enableone to get near enough so that his skillas a marksman will be of much avail. Ihave known men whose record in bag-ging other game was quite remarkableto come in after a morning of hard workwithout so much as a feather to show forit. But geese will outwit any man whohas not had an experience with them cov-ering more than one season, and eventhose who think they have learned allabout the habits of the goose will be sur-prised at new evidences of intelligencecoming constantly to their notice.I once had an aggravating experienceof this kind. I had been, for a week ortwo, shooting duck along the Loupe Riverin Nebraska, and had enjoyed several gooddinners on roast goose without having