The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-12
A Great Plenty of Birds but it Takes n Keen
 Hunter to Get Them.


 along the Missouri and Mississippi riv- CT bottom lands is great sport, but there are scores of hunters in southern California, and especially in the San Joaquin valley, who say that nowhere else in the United States are there bet fer opportunities to hunt geese and ducks than In this region. Out here it is a sport replete with incident. and recreation that one must experience to thoroughly appreciate.
 In the month of November and early December there are literally scores of armies of wild geese, numbering 2,OoO or 5000 each, that pass over this sec ton in their migration from British America to the Mexican and Central American coast region. On some days at this season there are to be seen in the little coves and marshy bays that indent the coast of southern California thousands of wild geese, squawking, diving, and 'honlhonking" on the sur | face of the water. They feed upon the | wheat and barley left on the ground l amid the stubble by the careless thrash CTS in the grain fields of this region. | Hundreds of men and boys who can shoot turn out annually at this season to have a day or two of sport in shoot ing them.
 There have been days when as many | as thousand wild geese have been 'tumbled over' in a single locality, and 1t is estimated that there have been many days when several thousand of | the birds have been slain by hunters | here and there in southern California. | Still there Is no diminution in the num- | Der of geese, ,and each year the flocks are | just as frequent and as large.
 At about the middle of October each year the professional goose hunter of | California fixes a station among the rank grasses and jules about the shores of the marshy bays, and especially the muddy alkall lakes, in preparation for the coming of the migrating birds from the north. As surely as November rolls around the birds begin to come and the hunter begins his campaign of shoot ing geese. There is no game quite so wary as the Pacific coast geese, and 1t requires rare patience, much exposure, and unusual knowledge of the habits of the birds to be able to get them in great l quantities to supply the markets.
 When the hunter considers that he Is much bigger than the goose, and that the range of vision of this tireless navigator of the air is greatly en- | hanced from it's exalted position among the clouds, and that the game he seeks | is always on the alert for danger, he will then appreciate the necessity of lying very low when he seeks to get | within gunshot of wild geese They | cannot be fooled like ducks. They are entirely devoid of curiosity, and take many things for granted without stop ping to investigate, especially If the | things look like men, When migrating the goose seldom alights in the water in the daytime, although 1t keeps close to it, and generally follows a water course during most of It's flight. When 1t settles for a nights rest 1t generally seeks open water, but Is up at dawn and away.
 The best locality In southern Cali
 fornia to bag 75 or 100 wild geese day by a man who makes business of hunting is about the alkali lake anc the immense irrigating reservoirs of wa
 ter of Kern county, where over 1O,00' acres of wheat fields lie adjacent. Wher
 the day is misty and the clouds come
 low down toward the earth Is consid
 cred by experienced hunters to be th'
 hest time to get shots that tell, for th'
 reese will not attempt to make Ions Il flights unless the lookout can see thu
 surroundings perfectly, and thus the!
 are compelled to fly low or stop unti
 the clouds rise or roll by. When fol lowing the river in stormy weathe
 they will often allght upon gravel ant
 sandbars where no willows or vegeta ; ton of any kind grow. Sometimes the. : drop down in the centre of big grail
 field. and put in their waiting moment
 in filling up.
 The hunter for wild geese in Kerr
 county or anywhere in the San Joaquin
 valley, who goes into the sport to mak
 business of 1t for day or two or week or two at a time, must locat
 himself on a sand bar in the lake al
 hour or two before dawn. The boat
 man that lands him must take his craf away again after he assists in the prep
 arations for the mornings shoot.
 shovel will be handy to make sligh
 depression in the sand or gravel-sa,
 eighteen inches deep and seven fee
 long. Throw an old quilt in the bolton : so that when you lie down you will no
 be exposed to dampness. Then yo want a piece of canvas as near the col or of the sand or gravel as possible This canvas should be large enough t
 cover a space eight feet square. If pcs sible. have about half a dozen tam geese as dark in color as can be got These should be tied to stakes at abou thirty yards distant from your blinc Be sure and have one old gander anon | these decoys. A 32-cali'bre Wincheste and a good shot gun will both come i play. The shotgun shells should con ; tain five drams of powder and an ounc and a quarter of No. shot. With thi paraphernalia all in, your blind an