igo GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



company with the Snow Goose, and are pursued in the same man- 

 ner as that species. The White-fronted Goose breeds in g^eat 

 numbers in the wooded districts north of the sixty-seventh parallel. 

 It is also abundant in Alaska during the summer, breeding along 

 the Yukon River in companies. It lays from seven to ten eggs in 

 a depression in the sand, no nest being formed. 



Anser hyferboreus. — Pallas. Snow Goose. White Brant. 



Bill and feet pink, the laminae of the former very prominent, so 

 that the bird looks as though it were showing its teeth ; claws dark. 

 Color pure white, except the primaries which are black-tipped, 

 specimens often show a wash of rusty on head and neck. Length 

 thirty inches, wing seventeen to nineteen inches. Variety albatus 

 is colored as above, but is somewhat smaller, measuring only 

 twenty-five inches in length. 



Although this species is distributed over the whole continent, 

 it does not seem to be abundant east of the Missouri River. 

 Stragglers are occasionally taken on the Atlantic seaboard, but 

 they are rare. In the Missouri River region this species becomes 

 more numerous, and when we reach the great Interior Basin they 

 begin to appear in flocks of enormous numbers. As with the pre- 

 ceding species, however, the Pacific Slope is the favorite winter 

 home of the Snow Goose. Here it frequents the sand-bars of the 

 Columbia and Willamette Rivers in countless numbers in the au- 

 tumn, especially during the night and dry weather, the plains being 

 preferred during the cool of the day, or in rainy weather. The 

 usual mode of hunting it is to lie in ambush behind a fence on the 

 prairie, and as the waddlers approach to give them both barrels, 

 heavily laden \vith No. i, or buckshot ; this is sure to leave half a 

 dozen hors de combat, and very often double the number. If the 

 hunter does not show himself, he is likely to getTseveral volleys at 

 them, as the noise frightens them only for a few moments. Should 

 their suspicion be aroused, they rise upward slowly in a dense 

 cloud of white, and sound their alarum notes ; but they may not 

 go over fifty yards ere they alight again, so that the amusement 

 may be continued without much toil or inconvenience. Another 

 mode is to mount a horse and approach them as closely as possi- 

 ble, then give them the contents of your barrels and, if they do 



