824 THE AMERICAN WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 
General Range.— North America (rare on the Atlantic Coast), breeding far 
northward; in winter south to Cape St. Lucas, Mexico and Cuba. 
Range in Washington.—Not common migrant. Locally and sparingly resi- 
dent in winter. 
Authorities.—| Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues. 
Vol Il. p. 191 f.] A. gambelit, Hartl., Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, 
p. 762. T. C&S. Rh. Kk. B. E. 
Specimens. |’roy. 
GENERALIZATIONS in regard to the abundance of water fowl are 
becoming increasingly unsafe. We only know that they are diminishing in 
numbers at a frightful rate. Add to the fact that the population of the Pacific 
slope has multiplied tenfold in three decades, the further fact that the pros- 
pectors and miners of Alaska have begun to strike at the source of supply, and 
you have a condition to give statesmen pause. In the great grain fields of 
middle California these White-fronted Geese were formerly so abundant as to 
be a real menace to the crops, and to necessitate the constant vigilance of 
watchmen. But those days have passed, along with those in which the Wild 
Pigeon darkened the east- 
ern sun. 
In the autumnal migra- 
tions the flight of these 
geese is chiefly coastwise. 
They move rapidly in 
great wedge-shaped com- 
panies with self-appointed 
leaders, and they fill the 
air with harsh, loud cries, 
rapid iterations of the 
Taken in San Francis: Photo by W. K. Fisher syllable cvah, from which 
AMERICAN WHITE-FRONTED GEESI they have won the name 
“Laughing Geese.” These 
birds are in splendid condition in late September, having been fattened upon 
the abundant heath-berries of the Alaskan lowlands; and those which have 
pastured on California wheat are hardly less toothsome in spring, altho it is 
a shame to kill them at that season. 
\propos of an interest aside from the gastronomic, it is a pleasure to cite 
the example of the Cominissioners of the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. 
Here wild birds are not only protected but systematically fed, and as a result 
wild fowl have been attracted in large variety, some of them so rare that they 
are mere names to most naturalists. Thus on the occasion of a visit to Stow 
Lake, in the Park mentioned, early in January, 1906, Mr. Walter K. Fisher, 
