The geese are sorely destructive to the autumn-sown wheat; the farmer welcomes the sportsman from selfish motives, as well as from his usual hospitality, when he sees him, gun in hand. The wild-geese are nearly all of one variety (_Bernicla Canadensis_); a few white ones (_Anser hyperboreus_) appear now and then, prominent among their gray brethren by their snowy plumage. Wild-ducks come next, and by the end of the first week of November the sportsman's carnival is in full swing. First come the mallard and his mate (_Anas boschus_), in small bands; next follow the whistling and the common teal (_Querquedula cyanoptera_ and _Nettion Carolinensis_); then the pintail (_Dafila acuta_) in great bands; following these, the wheat-duck, or gadwall (_Chaulelasmus streperus_), in multitudes; then, at a short interval, the redhead (_Fuligula Athya Americana_) and the black duck (_Fulix affinis_). These stay with us all the winter, as do also the wood-duck (_Dix sponsor_), and until the crocuses cover the wild ground once again. We have the snipe (_Gallinago Wilsonii_) in our marsh-lands, but not in large numbers, and one specimen of the great solitary snipe has been killed. The snipe have a curious instinct for knowing exactly how many one piece of marsh will support. Near this house is a wet corner, fed by springs and also by ditches. The extent is about an acre; it is covered with rose-bushes and alder-shoots, and with rushes. In this are usually three snipe, never more. Several times each winter we have cleared the three out, but in a week or so successors fill their places. [Sidenote: _FLIGHT-SHOOTING._] Our favorite sport in winter is "flight-shooting"--killing the geese and ducks as they fly round the swamps at evening, preparing to settle for their night's feed. This comes in after the day's work is pretty nearly done. Mounting our ponies about four o'clock, we canter off to a big swamp about three miles off. Through this flows a little stream, whose water swells with the winter rains into two little lakes. Long grass and sedges cover the ground, and a good many patches of reeds give shelter.