238 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



dinavian coasts to spend the winter, and the brant might v.ell be 

 expected to do the same. 



In hiter communications Mr. Jourdain refers to a third form, 

 darker than our so-called glaucogastra but lighter than nigricans, 

 breeding in western Siberia, Kolguev, and Nova Zembla. Such birds, 

 it seems to me, are intermediates, and show intergradation between 

 hernicla (glaucogastra) and nigricans. 



There is considerable evidence whicli points to intergradation 

 between hernicla and nigricans in Arctic America. P. A. Taverner 

 writes to me that they have specimens of both forms from Melville 

 Island and that he obtained two specimens at Comox, British Co- 

 lumbia, which are halfway between the two forms and furnish 

 " almost positive proof of complete intergradation between them." 

 Dr. R. M. Anderson writes to me : 



I have seen the natives shoot a good many brant (supposed to be black 

 brant) around the Mackenzie delta and in Arctic Alaska, and they were quite 

 variable as to paleness. The females and young are lighter in color than the 

 males as a rule, and, if my memory serves me right, some were as light as 

 so-called ylaucogastra which I have since seen. 



Alfred M. Bailey writes to me regarding birds collected in north- 

 ern Alaska : 



The majority of our specimens taken in the fall were dark bellied and 

 would be referable to the so-called nigricans, although we got many light- 

 colored birds. In the spring at Wales and Wainwright the birds collected 

 averaged considerably lighter than those taken in the fall, with the dark 

 breasts sharply defined in many cases. The white collar was practically 

 continuous in both the spring and fall birds. 



I notice that European writers are now recognizing nigricans as a 

 subspecies of hernicla.. and I believe that they are correct in doing so. 



Spring. — The brant which have spent the winter farthest south 

 begin to move northward in February, joining the birds which have 

 wintered on the Virginia coast late in February, and moving on to 

 Great South Bay, Long Island, in March. By the middle of April 

 they have moved farther east and are congregated in large numbers 

 off Monomoy, on the south side of Cape Cod. In the old days before 

 spring shooting was abolished this was a famous resort for brant 

 shooting in April. Monomoy Island, now joined to the mainland, 

 extends for 9 or 10 miles southward from the elbow of Cape Cod; 

 the eastern or outer side is a long, high, sandy beach washed by the 

 surf of the broad Atlantic; on the western or inner side, beyond the 

 sand dunes, are large grassy meadows or salt marshes, invaded by 

 shallow bays; at low tide broad mud flats, more or less covered with 

 eelgrass, extend for miles along the shore, furnishing ideal feeding 

 grounds for brant and other sea fowl. Between here and the flats 



