THE BRANT. 485 
sportsman a great deal of fatigue before he can kill them. Except 
in very calm weather, they rarely sleep on the water, but roost all 
night in the marshes. When the shallow bays are frozen, they 
seek the mouths of inlets near the sea, occasionally visiting the 
air-holes in the ice; but these bays are seldom so completely frozen 
as to prevent them from feeding on the bars. 
“The flight of the Wild Geese is heavy and laborious, generally 
in a straight line, or in two lines, approximating to a point thus, > : 
in both cases, the van is led by an old gander, who, every now and 
then, pipes his well-known honk, as if to ask how they come on; 
and the honk of ‘ All’s well’ is generally returned by some of the 
party. Their course is in a straight line, with the exception of 
the undulations of their flight. When bewildered in foggy weather, 
they appear sometimes to be in great distress, flying about in an 
irregular manner, and for a considerable time over the same quar- 
ter, making a great clamor. On these occasions, should they 
approach the earth, and alight, — which they sometimes do, to rest 
and recollect themselves, — the only hospitality they meet with is 
death and destruction from a whole neighborhood already in arms 
for their ruin.” 
BERNICLA BRENTA. — Stephens. 
The Brant. 
Anas bernicla, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 198. Wils. Am. Orn., VIII. 
(1814) 131. 
Anser bernicla, Nuttall. Man., II. 859. Aud. Orn. Biog., V. (1831) 24, 610. 
Jb., Birds Am., VI. (1848) 208. 
Bernicla brenta, Stephens. Shaw’s Zool., XII. (1824) 46. 
DESCRIPTION. ' 
Bill and. feet, head, neck, and body anterior to the wings, primary quills, and 
tail, black; the secondary quills nearly black; on each side of the middle of the 
neck is a small white crescent, streaked with black; the lower eyelids with a very 
faint trace of white feathers; the black of the jugulum is abruptly defined against 
the bluish silvery-gray of the remaining under parts, the feathers of which have the 
basal portions bluish-gray; the axillars and insides of the wings showing a darker 
tint of the same; the gray of the belly passes gradually into white behind, the tail 
being encircled all round and concealed by this color; the back and wing coverts 
are grayish-blue, with slightly paler edges; the rump is of a similar, but darker and 
more uniform blue; the secondaries have some concealed whitish on the inner webs 
towards the base; iris dark-hazel. 
Length, twenty-three and fifty one-hundredths inches; wing, twelve and seventy- 
five one-hundredths; tarsus, two and twenty-six one hundredths; commissure, one 
and forty one-hundredths inches. 
