246 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



than a fat, young brant, roasted just right and served hot, with a 

 bottle of good Burgundy. Both the bird and the bottle are now 

 hard to get ; alas, the good old days have passed. 



A few brant are shot, as they migrate along the coast, by gunners 

 anchored offshore for coot shooting; the long undulating line of 

 big black birds with white hind quarters is easily distinguished 

 from the irregular flocks of the scoters ; a thrill of anticipation runs 

 along the line as word is passed from boat to boat; the brant will 

 not decoy to the wooden blocks of coot shooters, but they may pass 

 over or near one of the boats or swing and fly along the line near 

 enough for a shot; but more often they give the boats a wide berth, 

 and the disappointed gunner fires in vain at the coveted birds, which 

 are probably farther away than they seem to be. 



Keal brant shooting may be had at only a few favored localities 

 where the birds are wont to congregate, and then only with an elabo- 

 rate equipment. It was a sorry day for the brant shooter when 

 spring shooting was abolished, for the brant is the one bird above 

 all others for which spring seems to be the natural shooting sea- 

 son. Brant seem to be more plentiful in the spring than in the 

 fall and to linger longer on their favorite feeding grounds at that 

 season. April brant shooting at Monomoy has long been famous 

 in the annals of Massachusetts sportsmen, when formerly splendid 

 sport could be enjoyed. E. H. Forbush (1912) says: 



Hapgood gives a record of 44 birds Ivilled from one of these boxes at one ' 

 sJiot, and states that 1,000 or 1,500 were killed in a season. This was many 

 years ago, before the formation of the brant clubs. No such number has been 

 killed in recent years. The average number killed by the members of the 

 Monomoy Branting Club for 34 years, during the Hapgood regime, is a trifle 

 over 266 birds per year. 



Now that we can shoot only in the fall, no such sport is obtain- 

 able; there are still plenty of brant, as the spring flights are enor- 

 mous, but on the Monomoy Flats, where my limited experience has 

 been gained, the brant seem to be comparatively scarce in the fall, 

 and they are so constantly disturbed by the busy fleet of scallop 

 fishermen's power boats that they do not remain to feed. 



On Monomoy our brant shooting is done from boxes located on 

 favorable points or sand bars near the feeding grounds. The box is 

 well made and water-tight, 6 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 4 feet deep ; 

 big enough for three men ; it is sunken into the sand deep enough to 

 be covered at high tide; numerous bags, sometimes 50 or 60, of sand 

 are piled around it to hold it in place; and if it is in a grassy place, 

 which helps to conceal it, the sloping sides of the pile may be thatched 

 with marsh grass woven into the meshes of poultry netting, held in 

 place by stakes and weighted with sand. Unless there is a natural 

 sand bar near the box, one must be made, on which the live decoys 



