WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE 117 



"The principal winter home of the Emperor Goose is on the seacoast 

 of south-western Alaska, and only stragglers reach California. But it is 

 probable that if all the Emperor Geese ever observed in California had 

 been recorded, it would be found that almost every year one or two of 

 the birds had made their way within our borders .... In spite of the 

 fact that this as a marine species, most of the records are from the in- 

 terior valleys" (Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer, 1918). 



Of the flesh of the Emperor Goose, Turner (1886) says: It is 

 "scarcely to be thought of as food. There is a disgusting odor about this 

 bird that can only be removed in a degree, and then only by taking off 

 the skin and freezing the body for a time. Even this does not rid the 

 flesh entirely of strong taste." Conover (1926) says: "The strong, rank 

 odor of these geese spoken of by other writers was not noticed among the 

 birds we took. Many of them were eaten and not found at all 

 unpalatable." 



White-Fronted Goose 



Anser alb i from alb i from 

 (an-ser, al-bi-fronz) 



Colour Plate No. 4. Downy Young No. 32 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Anser, Latin, meaning a goose; albifrons, from Latin albus, meaning white, 

 and frons, meaning forehead, referring to the white front of this goose. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN GENERAL USE: Specklebelly; specklebelly brant. IN LOCAL USE: Brant; California 

 goose; checker-belly; checkerbreast; China goose; gray brant; gray goose; gray wavy; 

 laughing goose; marbled-breast; mottled brant; mottled goose; oie caille (quail 

 goose, probably because of the barred plumage); oie nonnette (nun goose, sug- 

 gested no doubt by the "white front"); pied brant; speckled brant; speckled goose; 

 specklebreast; speckle-breasted brant; specklebreast goose; spotted brant; spotted 

 goose; Texas goose; whitefront; yellowlegged goose; yellowlegs. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULTS, BOTH SEXES. Head and entire neck, brownish grey; white band around 

 front of face at base of bill and on chin, bordered behind with blackish (the 

 "white-front"); bill, pink, pale bluish at base, yellow orange about nostrils, a 

 little shorter than head, high at base, tapering to tip, slight "grinning" patch 

 only; nail, white or whitish; eye, brown; skin at edge of eyelid, greyish brown. 

 Body. Back, greyish brown, feathers with paler tips; lower back and rump, dark 

 brown to slaty brown; scapulars, like back; chest, ashy grey to greyish brown; breast, 

 greyish white, irregularly splashed in varying degree with dusky brown or black 

 (specklebelly); belly and flanks, white; sides, like back, but pale feather-tips 

 broader, upper edges of longer side-feathers, white, producing a white line along 



