26 



THE OOLOGIST 



171a American White Fronted Goose, 



Anser Albifrons gambeli. 

 TMs bird shown above commonly 

 known as the Gray Brant, or Speckled- 

 belly, is by far the wildest of all wild 

 geese with which we have come in 

 contact. It is very doubtful that they 

 can ever be domesticated. Some of 

 those shown on the above picture 

 have been in our possession for years; 

 others for a short time. The result is 

 apparently just the same; they are all 

 as wild today as the day we got them. 

 This Goose breeds along the coast of 

 A-laska and about the mouth of the 

 Yukon river, in large numbers. Also 

 along the coasts of the Arctic Sea on 

 both sides of Bering Strait, as well as 

 generally along the Northern coast of 

 North America. It is one of the com- 

 monest of wild geese, and is noted 

 among gunners and hunters generally 



as being a bird that is always in good 

 order and ready for the table, appar- 

 ently never getting lean and thin like 

 other varieties of wild fowl. 



Like all other geese, it nests upon 

 the ground, either scratching a hole 

 in the sand, and lining it, or building 

 a mound of grass and hay and vege- 

 tation of different kinds. 



In winter it is distributed general- 

 ly throughout most portions of the 

 United States West of the Allegheny 

 mountains, in many places very com- 

 mon, and in others it is seldom seen. 

 In the Westerly half of the United 

 States it is far more common than 

 further East. In portions of Califor- 

 nia it, with other geese, at times be- 

 comes so plentiful that men are em- 

 ployed with guns to drive and keep 

 the birds fi'om the growing wheat 

 fields. 



