WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 47 



follow the same line of flight going and returning, many 

 are shot by sportsmen who' have taken positions along 

 their routes. When much hunted they become very shy 

 and wild, and permit nothing to approach them, and have 

 sentinels posted to give due warning of danger, and as 

 soon as an alarm is sounded each individual throughout 

 the flock is on the alert, and if the cause of their sus- 

 picion remains, the entire company takes wing for an- 

 other locality. Although the name by which this species 

 is generally known to the gunners of the west is Brant, 

 it has also various others in different parts of its disper- 

 sion. Some of these are Laughing Goose, — on account 

 of its cry, supposed to resemble the sound man makes 

 when laughing, — Prairie Brant, Speckled Belly, Speckled 

 Brant, Gray Goose, Pied Brant, Yellow-legged Goose, 

 etc.; and Oie Caille and Gray Brant in Louisiana. This 

 Goose is a most excellent bird for the table, especially 

 if young, as it receives from its customary diet no strong 

 or disagreeable flavors, and can rank as an article of food 

 with any other species of Goose, excepting possibly a 

 young bird of the salt-water Brant. The downy young 

 are very pretty little creatures, as they appear in their 

 various colors of sooty brown relieved by olive and 

 lemon yellow. This plumage lasts but a short time, when 

 they begin to assume the mature dress, and early in the 

 autumn they can hardly be distinguished from the adult, 

 differing chiefly in not having the white on the head at 

 the base of the bill, and less black on the lower parts. 



In the Old World this Goose is dispersed throughout 

 the northern portions, and ranges eastward as far as 

 China and Japan. As is its custom in America it flies in 

 V-shaped flocks, sometimes at a very considerable 

 height, frequents low marshy districts and feeds upon 

 water plants and grasses. At times it resorts to culti- 



