Living beauty

Abstract

IN HIS ESSAY, "Goose Music," Aldo Leopold admits to having "congenital hunting fever," and that, coupled with the fact that he has three sons to train in its virtues, keeps him shivering in his jacket at daybreak, fingers so frozen that the geese have nothing to fear from his aim. It's not clear how many shots he fires, but they are all wide of their mark. The hour is early and the cold is intense, and Leopold has just missed what he describes as a "big gander.