170 BULLETIN L30, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



that anything is to be dreaded when the rattling affair approaches, yet no 

 doubt experience will prove a good teacher, and its acquirements be trans- 

 mitted until they become inherent. A wild goose of any species is a good' 

 example of wariness in birds, as distinguished from timidity. A timid bird is 

 frightened at any unusual or unexpected appearance, particularly if it be ac- 

 companied by noise, while a wary one only flies from what it has learned to 

 distrust or fear through its acquired perceptions or inherited instincts. 

 Doctor Heermann's notice of this species gives an idea of the immense num- 

 bers of the birds in some localities, besides relating a novel method of hunt- 

 ing them. He says they " often cover so densely with their masses the plains 

 in the vicinity of the marshes as to give the ground the appearance of being 

 clothed in snow. Easily approached on horseback, the natives sometimes near 

 them in this manner, then suddenly putting spurs to their animals, gallop 

 into the flock, striking to the riglit and left with short clubs, and trampling 

 them beneath their horses' feet. I have known a native to procure 17 birds 

 in a single charge of this kind through a flock covering several acres." 



Walter E. Brj^ant (1890), in comparing their status then with past 

 conditions in California, writes: 



There has not, so far as I am aware, been a very marked decrease in the 

 number of geese which annually visit California, but the area over which they 

 now feed is considerably less than in 1850. In the fall of that year, my 

 father, while going from San Francisco to San Jose, met with acres of white 

 and gray geese near San Bruno. They were feeding near the roadside, in- 

 different to the presence of all persons, and in order to see how close he could 

 approach he walked directly toward them. When within 5 or 6 yards of the 

 nearest ones they stretched up their n€K?ks and walked away like domestic 

 geese ; by making demonstration with his arms they were frightened and 

 took wing, flying but a short distance. They seemed to have no idea that 

 they would be harmed, and feared man no more than they did the cattle in 

 the fields. The tameness of the wild geese was more remarkable than of 

 any other birds, but it must be understood that in those days they were but 

 little hunted and probably none had ever heard the report of a gun and few 

 had seen men. This seems the most plausible accounting for the stupid 

 tameness of the geese, 40 years ago. What the wild goose is to-day on the 

 open plains of the large interior valleys of California those who have hunted 

 them know. By 1853 the geese had become wilder and usually flew before 

 one could get within shotgun range, if on foot, but in an open buggy or upon 

 horseback there was no difiiculty. There was a very marked contrast be- 

 tween the stupidly tame geese after their arrival in the fall and the same 

 more watchful and shy birds before the departure in spring of the years 1852 

 and 1853. This is an important fact, showing not only the change in the in- 

 stinct occurring within three years, but the more remarkable change, or it may 

 be called the revival of the instinct of fear, which was effected within a few 

 months ; to this point I will refer again. 



The following quotations from Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer 

 (1918) will give a fair idea of present conditions in California: 



There has been a more conspicuous decrease in the numbers of geese than 

 in any other game birds in the State. Many observers testify that there is 

 only 1 goose now for each 100 that visited the State 20 years ago, and some 

 persons aver that in certain localities there is not more than 1 to every 1,000 

 which formerly occurred here. Not only have these birds been slaughtered for 



