CACKLING GOOSE 



101 



This little goose has always been much hunted. Bent (1925) says: 

 "The primitive hunters of the Aleutian Islands formerly killed large 

 numbers of these geese by catching them in long nets set on the edges of 

 ponds where they fed. Some 

 of the natives were also quite 

 expert at throwing at the 

 passing flocks a bolas made 

 of three stones attached to a 

 leather thong, which became 

 entangled with the necks and 

 wings of the birds, bringing 

 sometimes two and even three 

 birds down to the ground. 

 The birds were salted away 

 for future use during the 

 winter and must have served 

 as an important addition to 

 the food supply of the na- 

 tives." Grinnell, Bryant, 

 and Storer (1918) say: 

 "Very large numbers of 

 Cackling Geese are to be 

 found at times in the markets 

 of our larger cities." Once 

 just as numerous as the Less- 

 er Canada Goose, if not more 

 so, it is rapidly decreasing in 

 numbers from year to year. 

 "Old residents in some parts of the Sacramento Valley say that now 

 there is not more than one of these geese present where formerly there 

 were hundreds. To the work of the market hunter can be attributed 

 much of this decrease, for this goose is one which is easily procured and 

 which finds a ready sale on the market. While still rated as common in 

 restricted portions of the State [California], this goose is in a fair way 

 to disappear completely unless enough of the birds are left each winter 

 to guarantee the return of an adequate stock in the spring to the breed- 

 ing grounds in the north." 



The prohibition of market hunting and the enforcement of the 

 more enlightened game laws of today have greatly benefited this little 

 goose, and once again in winter Cackling Geese are abundant in the in- 

 terior valleys of California, where they frequent the grain fields in com- 

 Eany with Lesser Canada Geese, Snows, Ross's, and White-fronts. The 

 abits and behaviour of the Cackling Goose are so similar to those of the 

 Common Canada Goose that they need not be repeated here. 



