122 GEESE 



cackling constantly, as they sail on stiff, set wings; or, diving, tumbling, 

 turning somersaults downward, and catching themselves before they 

 strike the water, form an orderly array again, and fly silently, close along 

 the surface quite a distance before finally settling down upon it softly 

 to rest." 



In earlier times geese were hunted in the West, using a bullock as 

 a moving blind; this method is described by Coues (1874) as follows: 

 "As is the case with other species, they are often hunted, in regions where 

 they have become too wild to be otherwise successfully approached, by 

 means of bullocks trained for the purpose. Though they may have learned 

 to distrust the approach of a horse, and to make off with commendable 

 discretion from what they have found to be a dangerous companion of 

 that animal, they have not yet come to the same view with respect to 

 horned cattle, and great numbers are slaughtered annually by taking ad- 

 vantage of their ignorance. The bullock is taught to feed quietly along 

 toward a flock, the gunner meanwhile keeping himself screened from the 

 birds' view by the body of the animal until within range. . . . Man's in- 

 genuity overreaches any bird's sagacity, no doubt, yet the very fact that 

 the geese, which would fly from a horse, do not yet fear an ox, argues for 

 them powers of discrimination that command our admiration." 



Of the food of this species, Audubon (1840) says: "In feeding they 

 immerse their necks, like other species; but during continued rains they 

 visit the cornfields and large savannahs. While in Kentucky they feed 

 on the beech nuts and acorns that drop along the margins of their fa- 

 vourite ponds. In the fields they pick up the grains of maize left by the 

 squirrels and raccoons, and nibble the young blades of grass. In their 

 gizzards I have never found fishes nor water lizards, but often broken 

 shells of different kinds of snails." Turner (1886) says: "It inhabits the 

 fresh-water lagoons, and is essentially a vegetarian. The only animal 

 food found in their crops was aquatic larvae and insects. I am not 

 aware that it eats shellfish at any season of the year. The young grass 

 shoots found in the margins of the ponds form its principal food." Nel- 

 son (1887) says: "During August and September the geese and many 

 other wild fowl in the north feed upon the abundant berries of that 

 region and become very fat and tender." Bent (1925) says: "In the 

 interior valleys of California, where it spends the winter, and on its 

 migrations through agricultural districts, it feeds in the grain fields on 

 fallen grain in the fall and on the tender shoots of growing grain in the 

 spring." 



In the spring the flocks of White-fronts commence moving north 

 early in March; April is usually the month of the heaviest flight, and by 

 the beginning or middle of May the birds are once again on their sum- 

 mer breeding grounds. The main autumn flight takes place in September 

 and October. 



