The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-18
WILD GEESE AND THEIR HABIT

| fugnacious During Sourtship and Some
time Known to Il ope
From the Kansas City Star,
| OBJECTS which never fail Just now to
| attract the attention of travellers over
| western Kansas are fiocks of wild
geese feeding upon the rich fields of
wheat which this spring seem to spread
a carpet of green over all the broad
domain To rest and refresh them
selves in their annual fight northward
the geese alight in these fields They
select their ground carefully, choosing
| a spot remote from human habitation
and so situated that they may see all
the country around about and thus be-,
warned of the approach of danger in
time to take flight.
In their migrations northward in the
early spring and southwark in the late
fall, wild geese fly in families of a
dozen or 20, arranging themselves in
the form of the letter "A" one side of
the letter invariably shorter than the
other, and the father and gander and
the mother goose a little in advance
or the apex. Sometimes many families
unite for a time and travel together
but always that inevitable letter Al
is clearly defined in the sky, the process
sion led by a gander who has travelled
the road before and whose "Honkl
honk" guides the flight.
While feeding every family posts a
sentinel, who stands in the midst of
the feeding flock, his neck stretched
high, fixed and rigid as a statue. 4.t
Travelling over the Rock Island rail-
road from Topeka to Hutchinson one
day last week with Colonel George w.
Veale of Topeka. who knows all about
geese, a representative Of the Star wit
messed this spectacle of patience and
faithfulness and saw, too, an attempt
by a farmer boy to steal upon the flock
with gun. The passengers crowded
to the windows or FASTENED to the car
platforms and the engineer, also inter-
ested, slowed down the train to a creep.
The boy crept down a draw to a point
nearest the geese and then began To
work his way over rise. The boy was
to leeward, so the sentinel could not
be warned by scent, and the enemy
had not yet got into view. Slowly the
boy toiled his way, his body fiat
against the ground. Finally he had
dragged himself to a point where he
could see the geese feeding over a ra-
dius of 20 yards from the sentinel, and
moving slowly in the direction of the
boy He had only to be patient and
his reward would be a brace of wild
geese. But he possessed a boys curl
osity. He raised his head to look I
"Quack, quack!' sounded the warning
of the sentinel All was excitement in
the camp, the sentinel ran, knowing /
that there was danger, the others of |
the family following. After a dash of |
30 yards they rose in the air but flying I
low. the sentiners guiding "Honkr' |
ahead of them. At the quack of the /
sentinel the boy rose and gave chase.
but the geese were too fleet of foot |
and too far away when they took 4
wing and the boys shot fell short of .
his aim.
These geese were in wild disorder /
when they lifted themselves into the
air, but after that not a sound was
heard save from the sentinel. WHOSE ,
notes soon became reassuring. and be-
fore they had flown a quarter of a mile
they were high in the sky. and, be-
hold, there was the never-failing let
ter "A" r.. ..r.
Then the silent and inspired specta-
tors from the train, which was now
rapidly. witnessed another
spectacle. The danger past. the senti-
nell which had been in the lead
dropped back and took his position al
the end of the longer arm OF the a
while from that position the father of
the family pushed TO the head OF the
and. from the end of the short
er arm, the mother goose flew forward ,
and Joined him. Until that moment
they had been flying 2 southwesterly
direction. but "Honk, honkP' COM
manded the leader and they were
whirled to the northward and We're
soon lost to view.
Naturally the incident became a sub
feet Of comment in the car after the
geese had disappeared. and Colonel
Neale. who has spent a lifetime on the
plains Of Kansas. entertained the pas
sengers who crowded about him with
Wild goose stories. and when his word
was doubted he called upon }. ".
More Of Marion. or Farmer Smith OF