AMERICAN WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 



LAUGHING GOOSE. 

 Anser ALBIFRONS GAMBELI. 



Char. Upper parts brownish ash, the feathers paler on the edges; 

 forehead and rump white ; wings and tail dusky; under parts brownish 

 gray, blotched with black ; bill yellow, with white nail ; legs and feet 

 orange. Length about 30 inches. 



Nest. Amid rank grass and made of coarse herbage and lined with grass 

 and feathers, — sometimes a mere depression at the summit of a grassy 

 mound or in the sand on the bank of a river, lined with feathers and down. 



Eggs. 5-7 ; " dull greenish yellow " (?) ; 3.15 X 2.05. 



The White-fronted Goose breeds chiefly in the interior of the 

 continent on the skirts of the forest portions of sub-arctic regions, 

 and winters in Mexico and the West Indies. During the migra- 

 tions this Goose is rare along the Atlantic coast, but plentiful on 

 the plains, and quite common about the Great Lakes. 



Numbers of this species nest in Greenland, but they are said to 

 be of the European race, — true albifrons, — and they probably 

 migrate southward by the way of Iceland and the British Isles. 



The name of Laughing Goose is derived from the call, which is 

 loud and trumpet-like. It sounds something like wah, wa/i, wah, 

 ivah, repeated rapidly. 



