240 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the mainland and the sandy coastal islands. Where the water is shallow an 

 abundant growth of eel grass occurs, and here, protected from the open seas 

 beyond the islands, the brant find an ideal haven. There is a noticeable 

 increase of the birds since spring shooting was abolished, and during the last 

 10 days of May I have seen the water dotted with them in flocks ranging from 

 three or four to hundreds. During a 10-mile run in this region flocks were 

 rising every few minutes, and the din from their honking was terrific, espe- 

 cially in the early morning and evening. The main flocks leave in a body 

 about June 1, though stragglers linger up until June 10. As the time draws 

 near for their departure they gather into larger flocks and grow still more 

 noisy, but no premature mating tendencies are observed. 



Harrison F. Lewis has sent me the following notes on the move- 

 ments of brant on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence : 



Warden P. G. Rowe, of Prince Edward Island, was sent to the Bay of Seven 

 Islands last spring (1922) to protect the brant while they passed there, as 

 they do every spring. He arrived there on May 17 and found at that time 

 some hundreds of brant in the bay. He was unable to get near them. Natives 

 of Seven Islands told him that they had arrived there about the 1st of May ; 

 that they came into the bay from the southwest by a " pass " never used by 

 the great brant flight, as though they had descended the St. Lawrence ; and 

 that the same thing occurred each spring. These brant all left the bay some 

 days before the usual big flight of brant began to arrive. 



This may be the flight, referred to above, which migrates over- 

 land from Long Island Sound and which naturally would arrive 

 earlier. When Dr. Charles W. Townsend and I reached the Bay of 

 Seven Islands, May 23, 1909, no brant were there, nor did we see 

 any on our cruise farther eastward doAvn the coast; but when we 

 returned to Seven Islands on June 22 we were told by several 

 observers that there had been a big flight there in the meantime and 

 all had gone but one. They came the last of May and were prac- 

 tically all gone, in the direction of Hudson Bay, before June 20. 

 Mr. Lewis's notes confirm these statements verj^ well, as follows : 



I may also say that the big flight of brant from Prince Edward Island passed 

 the Bay of Seven Islands in the early days of June (5-15) this year. They all 

 enter the bay by the two easternmost " passes," chiefly by the most eastern 

 " pass " of all. The number entering the bay was checked carefully by War- 

 den Rowe, who was able to count them very well, as they passed at a low 

 elevation, chiefly in flocks of two or three hundred or less. He sets the total 

 number at at least 00,000. I believe that this includes practically the entire 

 species. 



Their route overland to Hudson Bay and from there to their 

 northern Arctic breeding places is not so easily traced. They have 

 not been noted in spring on the west coast of Hudson Bay, where they 

 are reported as common in the fall. They ma_y migrate up the 

 east coast or they may fly straight north overland to Ungava Bay. 

 Mr. Lucien M. Turner's notes, which seem to point to the overland 

 route, say : 



