244 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



certain stages of the tides, the last half of the ebb or the first half of 

 the flood, when the beds of eelgrass are uncovered or covered with 

 shallow water, the brant resort to them in large numbers to feed. 

 They prefer the roots and the whitish lower stems, but they eat th& 

 green fronds also. As soon as the water is shallow enough for 

 them to reach the grass by tipping up they begin to feed, and they 

 keep at it until the tide again covers the flats too deeply. While 

 most of the birds are feeding with heads and necks below tlie surface 

 there are always a few sentinels on watch to warn them of approach- 

 ing danger. They pull up much more eelgrass than they can eat 

 at once; this floats off with the tide and often forms small floating 

 islands, far off from shore, to which the brant resort at high tide 

 to feed again. John Cordeaux (1898) says that the longer pieces of 

 Zostera " are neatly rolled up, like ribbons, in their stomachs " ; they 

 also devour the fronds of some species of algae, crustaceans, mol- 

 lusca, worms, and marine insects. Giitke says that at Heligoland^ 

 when the sea is calm, small companies will approach the cliffs and 

 pick off the small mollusca and crustaceans. 



I have at times been greatly entertained in watching a flock of brant feed- 

 ing in shallow water, close inshore, the greater portion of the birds upside 

 down, their rumps and tails showing the white coverts, only visible as they 

 greedily tear at the blades and roots of the grass wrack, whilst others are 

 seizing the floating fragments of the plant, broken off and dislodged by 

 their mates; and on the outside there are always some with heads held high, 

 ever on the watch, and ready to give alarm. All the time they keep a continu- 

 ous, noisy gabbling and grunting, the rear birds constantly swimming forward 

 to get in advance of their fellows, a procedure whicli I have known, more 

 than once, bring them within range of an ordinary sporting gun. 



Brant in captivity are especially fond of barley and will eat corn 

 and other grains. George H. Mackay (1893) says: 



Two wing-tipped birds I have in confinement eat with avidity the alga 

 {Viva lactuca). They also eat Zostera marina, preferring the white portion 

 farthest from the extremity of the blade. They cut this up by chewing fir.st 

 on one side and then on the other of their mandibles, which cuts the grass 

 as clean as if scissors had been used. The motion reminds one strongly of 

 a dog eating, the bird turning its head mucla the same way. They are fond 

 of whole corn and common grass. These confined birds drink after almost 

 every mouthful, from a pan of fresh water. The wild birds living in this 

 neighborhood have no opportunity of obtaining fresh water. 



Doctor MacMillan tells me that he has seen brant, when they first 

 arrive in Baffin Land in the spring, feeding on the black lichens 

 which grow on the rocks on the uplands. 



Behavior. — Brant do not ordinarily fly in V-shaped flocks, like 

 Canada geese, but in long undulating lines, spread out laterally in 

 straight company-front formation, or in a curving line, or in an 

 irregular bimch, and without a definite leader. When migrating 



