WBITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 261 



CHAPTER XXVIL 



■WHITB-FBONTED GOOSE. 



(^Anser Alhifrons : called " Brant " in the West.) 



Head and neck, grayish brown ; at the base of the 

 upper mandible a white band. Adult with bill carmine- 

 red ; with the ungins white ; head and neck grayish 

 brown ; a white band margined behind with blackish 

 brown on the anterior part of the forehead, along the 

 bill ; general color of the back, deep-gray, the feathers 

 of its fore part, broadly tipped with grayish brown, 

 the rest with grayish white. Hind part of back, deep- 

 gray ; wings grayish brown, toward the edge ash-gray, 

 as are the primary coverts, and outer webs of the prim- 

 aries; rest of the primaries and secondaries grayish 

 black, — ^the latter, with a narrow edge of grayish white, 

 the former, edged and tipped with white. Breast, ab- 

 domen, lower tail coverts, sides, rump and upper tail 

 coverts, white ; the breast and sides, patched with 

 brownish-black, on the latter intermixed with grayish- 

 brown feathers. Tail, rounded ; feet, orange ; claws, 

 white. Length, twenty-seven and one half inches; 

 wing fourteen and one half inches. 



The white-fronted geese, at a not remote period were 

 very plenty throughout the West. Their numbers have 

 steadily decreased, going regularly and surely before 



