76 NOTES ON THE 



which he is concealed from the geese on the "sloughs" along 

 the San Joachim and Sacramento rivers, or along the bays. 

 The approach is so slow that the ox naturally feeds much of 

 the time, while the gunner, peeping over the back, and under 

 the neck of the ox, watches the movements of the flock until 

 they bring all the relationships right to serve the purpose 

 most effectually, when he carefully turns the gun into position, 

 fires a pistol, carried for that end, the countless flock rises, 

 and when a little above the water, trigger is pulled, and then 

 follows the "rain of geese," till between the killed and the 

 wounded, it sometimes seems as if the whole flock must have 

 been exterminated by that terrific shot. 



Fifty drams of Duck powder behind a pound of Goose shot, 

 well directed under such circumstances, ought to show results. 

 Sometimes it does. 



An instance of considerable local interest occurred which 

 will illustrate the results of swivel gun shooting upon the 

 White-fronted Geese. 



A citizen of Sacramento, many years since, published an 

 offer of a Panama hat worth $25, to the person who would 

 beat his record with a single shot at Geese. He had killed 

 nearly fifty. For fifteen years the hat remained unclaimed, 

 when a claimant proved his right to it by showing seventy - 

 five Ducks of this species killed by a single shot on the ' 'Tules" 

 of the San Joachim, near the Suisan bay. They are seldom 

 numerous in the spring migration, indeed some years almost 

 unobserved, but rarely fail of returning in the autumn during 

 October in large and numerous flocks. Their habits while 

 with us are not characteristically unlike most other members 

 of its family. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Tail of sixteen feathers; bill and legs red; along sides of 

 bill and forehead, white, margined with blackish-brown behind; 

 rest of head and neck grayish- brown, paler on jugulum; back 

 bluish-gray, the feathers anteriorly tipped with brown, sides 

 similarly colored; breast and belly grayish -white, blotched 

 irregularly with black; anal region, sides behind, and beneath 

 the tail, with upper coverts, white; secondary quills and ends 

 of primaries dark-brown, remaining portion of primaries and 

 coverts silvery ash; shafts of quills white; greater coverts 

 edged with white; tail feathers brown tipped with white; 

 axillars and under surface of wings ashy-plumbeous. 



Length, 28; wing, 16.30; tarsus, 2.90; commissure, 2.05 



Habitat, North America. 



