WILD GEESE. 249 
nected with the sneak-box by cords, and are usually 
placed in pairs on each side of it, as they call much bet- 
ter when they are together than when they are isolated, 
owing to their habit of cackling socially to one another. 
Of the different species of geese found on the Continent, 
one of the best known and most sought is the white- 
fronted, or laughing goose (Anser albifrons, var. gam- 
belli), which has reddish legs and bill; alongside of bill 
and forehead the color is white, margined behind with 
blackish-brown; the remainder of the head and neck is 
grayish-brown, but paler on the jugulum. The back 
is bluish-gray; the feathers are tipped anteriorly with 
brown; the bill and breast are grayish-white, blotched 
with black; the anal region, flanks, under part of the tail 
and upper coverts are white; and the greater coverts are 
edged with white. The tail is brownish and has sixteen 
feathers; and the axillars and under surface of the wings 
are ashy plumbeous. This species is exceedingly numer- 
ous during the autumn and spring, and may be found 
all winter in some of the regions bordering the North 
Pacific Ocean, but the majority go as far South as 
Southern California, Mexico, and the adjoining Territo- 
ries. They return to the North in the spring to build 
their nests and rear their young, their favorite habitat 
being the vast area extending from the forty-ninth to the 
seventieth parallel. Indians say that the females lay 
from six to a dozen eggs each, in a rude nest, which is 
nothing more than a depression in the ground, and that 
the goslings take to the water almost immediately after 
leaving the shell, and keep near it until they commence 
- their southern migration, but thousands, if not millions 
of them, never reach their winter home, as they are 
slaughtered indiscriminately by red and white fowlers as 
soon as they are in a fit condition for the table. They 
move in such immense masses that they resemble huge 
clouds; and when they alight they seem to be most at- 
