Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-06-04
FLIGHT OF WILD GEESE.
How the Leaders Watch Over and Protect
Them.

Them.
Objects which never fail to attract
the attention of travellers over Western
Kansas are fiocks Of wild geese feed
ing on the rich fields Of wheat, which
this spring seems to spread carpet Of
green over all the broad domain. To
rest and refresh themselves in their an
nual flight northward, the geese alight
In these fields. They select their
ground carefully, choosing a spot re-
mote from human habitatIon and so
situated that they may see all the
country about, and thus be warned Of
the approach Of danger in time to take
fight.
In their migration northward in the
early spring and southwark In the late
fall, wild geese fly in families Of doz-
en- or twenty, arranging themselves in
the form Of the letter "a" one side
Of the letter invariably shorter than
the other, and the father gander and
the mother goose little in advance Of
the apex. Sometimes many families
unite for. "A time and travel together, but
always that inevitable letter "A" is
clearly defined in the sky, the process
sion led by a gander who has travelled
the road before and whose honk! 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.
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
wild geese, representative OF The
Star witnessed this spectacle Of patti
ence and faithfulness, and saw, too, an
attempt by farmer boy to steal upon
the flock with a gun. The passengers
crowded to the windows or fastened to
the car platforms, and the engineer,
also interested, slowed down the train
at creek. The boy crept down draw
to point near the geese, and then be.
gan to work his way over a rise. The
boy was to leeward, so the sentinel
could not be warned by scent, and the
enemy had not yet come 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
radius Of twenty yards from the senti-
mel, 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 boys
,t,siA 10 In RI
"Quack, quackv' sounded the warning
Of the sentinel. All was excitement in
the camp; the sentinel ran, knowing
there was danger, the others Of the
family following. After dash Of thirty
yards they rose in the air, but flying low,
the sentinel's guiding 'honk!' 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 wing, and the boys
shots fell short of his aim.
The 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 be-
came assuring, and before they had
flown a quarter Of a mile they were
high in the sky, and, behold! there was
the never-failing letter "a"
Then the spectators from the train,
which was now moving rapidly, wit
messed another spectacle. The danger
past. the sentinel, which had been in
the lead, dropped back and took his
position at the end of the long arm Of
the a." while from that position the
father of the family pushed to the head
of the column, and, from the end OF
the shorter arm, the mother goose few
forward and Joined him. Until that
moment they had been flying in a
southwesterly direction, but ''honk!
honk!' commanded the leader, and
they whirled to the northward and
were soon lost to view.-Kansas City
(Mo) Star.