116 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
night and killed by sticks! There is a fine, full plumaged adult in the 
collection of the Marsh Club at Monroe, Michigan, killed there. Mr. B. H. 
Swales says that one was shot by Mr. A. Ralph, November 16, 1888 on Lake 
St. Clair, near the mouth of the Thames, and is preserved in London, 
Ontario (MS. List, 1904). We have an adult mounted specimen (No. 
6560) in the college museum, taken on Loon Lake, Greenville, Michigan, 
April 30, 1895, and another specimen (No. 3574) immature, which probably 
is local but unfortunately has no record. There are also two, one adult 
and one immature, in the Kent Scientific Museum, Grand Rapids, but 
without data. Taverner records one killed at St. Clair Flats early in April 
1909. 
These geese are similar in habits in the main to the Canada Goose, but 
are said to migrate by night, as well as by day, and to fly in less regular 
flocks, seldom in the characteristic v-shaped flocks so common with that 
“species. The nest and eggs are unknown. 
In common with the snow geese they are known to sportsmen and 
gunners generally under the name of “Brant,” the adult of the former 
being generally called White Brant, while the young of that species and 
both old and young of the present species are confounded under the common 
name of Black Brant. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION, 
Adult: Entire head and neck all round pure white; chest and base of neck brownish 
black, the feathers edged with ashy; breast, sides, back, scapulars and tertiaries brownish 
edged with ashy, the inner scapulars and tertiaries edged with white and with somewhat 
darker shaft stripes; belly and under tail-coverts white; back, rump, and upper tail- coverts 
bluish gray to nearly white; wings with the primaries slaty blue to black, the secondaries 
mainly black, the coverts blue gray; tail pale brownish gray, each feather tipped and 
margined with white. Bill purplish red, the gaping fissure along the sides black; legs 
and feet purplish red; iris brown. Sexes alike. Immature: Described by Ridgway as 
‘‘similar to the adult, but head and neck uniform deep grayish brown, only the chin being 
white.” A specimen in our collection (No. 3574), however, has the back, wings and tail 
almost like those of the adult, but the head, neck and scapulars brownish gray with a 
bluish cast, darkest on back of the neck; the breast and most of the under parts light 
slaty blue with a brownish cast; the chin white. 
Length 26.50 to 30 inches; wing 15 to 17; culmen 2.10 to 2.30; tarsus 3 to 3.30. 
60. White-fronted Goose. Anser albifrons gambeli (Hartl.). (171a) 
Synonyms: American White-fronted Goose, Prairie Brant, Speckled-belly, Speckled 
Brant.—Anser gambelli, Hartlaub, 1852.—Anser albifrons, Bonap., 1828, Nutt., Aud. 
and others.—Anser albifrons var. gambeli, Coues, 1872. 
The adult is known at once by its pure white face or “mask” (whence the 
name ‘ White-fronted”) in strong contrast with the dark gray-brown of 
the rest of the head and neck. 
Distribution.—North America (rare on the Atlantic Coast), breeding 
far northward; in winter south to Cape St. Lucas, Mexico and Cuba. 
This is an extremely rare bird in the state and probably can be classed 
only as a straggler. Mcllwraith states that he has a bird in his collection 
taken at St. Clair Flats (Birds of Ontario, 1894, p. 97), and Mr. J. H. 
Fleming, of Toronto, Ontario, writes under date of March 8, 1906 ‘‘There 
is in the collection of Toronto University a mounted White-fronted Goose, 
taken by the late Dr. Garnier of Lucknow, Ont., probably at Mitchell’s 
Bay, Lake St. Clair.’ In the Barron collection at Niles, Michigan, I 
found an adult in good plumage, marked “Brant,” but without 
any locality label. In all probability, however, it was local. It occurs 
