BIRDS. 87 



incubation begins ail are soiled and dingy. The female usually crouches low ou bcr nest until an 

 jntru<ler comes within a hundred yards or so, when she skulks off through the grass or flies silently 

 away, close to the ground, and only raises a note of alarm when well away from the nest. When 

 the eggs are about hatching, or the young are out, both parents frequently become perfectly reck- 

 less in the face of danger. 



The young are hatched from the middle of June until the middle of July. 



The old birds moult their quill feathers from the 20th of July until late in August, and flocks 

 begin forming as soon as the birds are on the wing again. From that time until the last of Sej)- 

 tember and first of October, when they migrate, they are found scattered over the country, feeding 

 on various berries, which are ripe on the hill-sides. 



One season, at 10 p. m., on the 29th of September, an immense flock of these birds, with other 

 geese, was heard leaving the marshes, although the darkness was intense. The following day four 

 inches of snow fell and winter set in, thus affording an excellent example of what true weather- 

 seers these birds are. 



From the time the young are hatched until the moult, these and the allied geese may be tolled 

 within gunshot, as they fly from place to place, by the hunter merely lying or kneeling on the 

 ground and swinging his cap and making an outcry or imitating their note. 1 have seen this done 

 again and again by the Eskimo, and have done it often myself. 



The first plumage of this bird is a dull grayish umberbrown; the head and neck almost 

 uniform with the rest of the body and without any trace of the white cheek-patches. As is common 

 to the young of many water- fowl, the feathers of head, neck, and much of the rest of body are bor- 

 dered with a lighter shade than the main part of the feathers. 



Branta nigricans (Lawr.). Black Brant (Esk. Lftk-hl&g-uuuh). 



Each season, as the chilling storms and gloomy weather of middle May begin to give place to 

 a softer temperature and other proofs of approaching summer, the Black Brant first makes its 

 appearance on the east coast of Bering Sea. It is rarely found at the Yukon mouth before May 

 15, and it usually arrives from the 18th to the 22d of this month. The week or ten days following 

 the arrival of these birds in spring includes the bulk of their migration, after which none are seen 

 until fall, unless it may be an occasional pair which stop to nest in the marshes from (he Yukon 

 mouth north to Kotzebue Sound. This is a very rare occurrence, however, as my own experience 

 and that of the Eskimo goes to prove. 



In autumn thei'e is a striking difference in the number taking the coast of Bering Sea as a 

 pathway to the south, and in place of the myriads which pass north iu spring along this coast, 

 only a few scattered parties and stray birds make their appearance between the 1st and the 15th 

 of October. The cause for this is not known, but it may be due to the fact that in spring the birds 

 are forced to keep along the shore to find food ou the exposed flats, whereas in fall they can find 

 more or less food in passing across the sea from one point to another. The main flight of the 

 other geese has passed, and many of those which remain to breed have alreiKly paired when the 

 height of the Brant flight occurs. 



The weather has become just mild enough to render camping somewhat comfortable by this 

 time, and at Saint Michaels we counted, each spring, upon a few days' sport with these birds as the 

 cream of the shooting season. The nights during the last half of May are scarcely darker at Saint 

 Michaels than early twilight iu lower latitudes, and the air, frosty and bracing between sunset and 

 sunrise, renders camping at this season doubly attractive. The soft, hazy outlines of the land- 

 scape, and the solemn silence brooding over all, make the night scenes impressive. The early 

 sun pours its rays iu long bars of light through the mountain defiles upon the marshes and 

 awakens to life the noisy multitude which has congregated about the opening pools and bare 

 spaces. A speedy toilet made through the icy rim of a pool, and a hasty breakftist, quickly disposed 

 of, and one who wishes the best of the Brant shooting must soon gain his station. A rubber 

 blanket spread ou the wet moss allows a comfortable place to lie upon at full length, until, as the 

 sun begins to make itself felt, the birds take wing from their resting-places about the borders of 

 the countless pouds and slough-holes ou the broad stretch of marsh. Iu flocks of from ten to 



