172 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



O. Morris states that he has seen a Snow Goose twice near 

 Springfield. Mr. Edwin Leonard says that one was taken 

 several years ago and put with a flock of domestic Geese. 

 Mr. William P. Milner of Concord, Middlesex County, says 

 that there are a few left, and he believes that they are increas- 

 ing. Mr. Charles J. Paine, Jr., has seen a large flock within 

 a year. Mr. Alfred E. Gould of Maiden has seen twenty in 

 twenty years. Mr. Charles L. Perkins of Newburyport 

 records one killed in December, 1908, and Mr. Herbert F. 

 Chase of Amesbury states that they have been shot there 

 three or four times within thirty years. Mr. Rockwell F. 

 Coffin of Norfolk County saw them at Chatham in 1905. 

 The species is reported in Plymouth County by Mr. B. T. 

 Williamson, who says that he saw a flock six years ago, and 

 by Mr. Wiley S. Damon, who has seen them but has not 

 taken any. Mr. A. C. Bent and Mr. Horace Tinkham regard 

 them as stragglers in Bristol County. Five observers report 

 them as rare in Barnstable County. Mr. Isaac Hills of Nan- 

 tucket says that he has not known of any killed there in 

 twenty-five years. All these notes may refer to either this or 

 the succeeding species. Dr. C. W. Townsend gives specific 

 instances of the occurrence of this species in Essex County, 

 and it is recorded in recent years from all the New England 

 States and New York. Several flocks of White Geese have 

 been seen and recorded by others in Massachusetts in recent 

 years (see Bird-Lore). This species is still plentiful in some 

 parts of the west and southwest, although Mr. J. D. Mitchell 

 reports from Texas that he formerly saw great numbers in 

 flocks on the prairie and now sees but from five to ten in the 

 average flock, and Mr. A. S. Eldredge states that he " used 

 to see great numbers there, but only saw one in 1908." 



The bird is so conspicuous and receives so little protection 

 that its chances for extinction are good, unless it is better 

 protected. Also, it is often destructive to grain and grass in 

 the west, and for this reason where it is numerous it incurs 

 the enmity of the farmers, who welcome any one who will 

 shoot it. It feeds more or less on berries and green vegetation. 



