n greater
numbers on the Pacific coast. The fresh-water lakes are our favorite
resorts. We visit the wheat fields and corn fields, nibbling the young,
tender blades and feeding on the scattered grain. The farmers don't like
it a bit, but we don't care. That is the reason our flesh tastes so
sweet.

And tough!

My, how you talk! It is only we old fellows that are tough, we fellows
over a year old. But of course a great many people don't know that, or
don't care.

Why, I once heard of a gander that had waddled around a barnyard for
five long years. Thanksgiving Day arrived, and they roasted him for
dinner.

Think of eating an old, _old_ friend like that!

Where do we build our nests?

Away up north, in Alaska, and on the islands of the Arctic Sea. We make
them of hay, feathers, and down, building them in hollow places on the
ground.

How many eggs?

Six. I am very good to my mate, and an affectionate father.

[Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences.
WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE.
Copyrighted by
Nature Study Pub. Co., 1897, Chicago.]

THE AMERICAN WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE.

White-fronted or Laughing Geese are found in considerable numbers on the
prairies of the Mississippi Valley. They are called Prairie Brant by
market-men and gunners. Though not abundant on the Atlantic seaboard,
vast flocks may be seen in the autumn months on the Pacific Slope. In
Oregon and northern California some remain all winter, though the
greater number go farther south. They appear to prefer the grassy
patches along streams flowing into the ocean, or the tide-water flats so
abundant in Oregon and Washington, where the Speckle-bellies, as they
are called, feed in company with the Snow Geese. The nesting place of
this favorite species is in the wooded districts of Alaska and along the
Yukon river. No nest is formed, from seven to ten eggs being laid in a
depression in the sand.

It is said that notwithstanding all references to their ungainly
movement and doltish intellect, the Wild Goose, of which the
White-fronted is one of the most interesting, is held in high estimation
by the sportsman, and even he, if keen of observation, will learn from
it many things that will entitle the species to advancement in the
mental grade, and prove the truth of a very old adage, that you cannot
judge of things by outward appearance. A goose, waddling around the
barnyard, may not present a very grac