312 UPLA^"D SHOOTING. 



portion of the subject, and, in imagination, take tlie 

 reader with, me, properly equipped for the sport, out onto 

 the low, broad plains of Southern Texas, some pleasant 

 winter day, or, better yet, into the golden stubble-fields 

 of Nebraska or Dakota, where goose-shooting is to-day 

 seen at its best; but a chapter on the wild goose without 

 a partial description of the general appearance of the 

 bird it treats of, would be incomplete at its best. It would 

 be like a well-known Shakespearean drama with the 

 principal character left out. 



The wild goose family contains not less than a dozen 

 different varieties. When the many different names 

 applied to the same species is taken into consideration, one 

 is inclined to believe — the novice especially — that there 

 must be ten times one dozen; but of the different varie- 

 ties, not over six or seven are well defined. In one of the 

 best known works on wild fowl shooting, only two varie- 

 ties are mentioned, the Canada goose and the white- 

 fronted goose, two of the best known to Western sports- 

 men in an early day. In a more recent and better work, 

 the author refers to four varieties — the Canada, snow- 

 goose, brant or brent goose, and the white-fronted. 

 These four varieties comprise about all that are commonly 

 met with in the West, of which the last named is nowa- 

 days but seldom seen. 



To attempt to so accurately describe the different vari- 

 eties of geese and hrant that the novice would instantly 

 recognize them when seen, seems a hopeless task, so 

 mixed is the nomenclature of the goose family. It is a 

 clear case of making confusion worse confounded. As a 

 well-known writer on wild fowl truly says, ' ' The nomen- 

 clature of goose family Avill put in doubt and mystify 

 the wild fowl hunter greatly, for they receive their names 

 in the West, not scientifically and historically, but 

 locally." The same author then cites as an illustration 



