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 cf 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 pulied, 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. 
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