836 THE FULVOUS ‘TREE DUCK. 
together are to be mentioned in comparison. They sit the water in small com- 
panies and altho they are exceedingly wary in regard to rowboats, they often 
permit an approach on the part of steamers which is very gratifying to the 
student. An exaggerated use of their long wings as the birds get under way 
gives the beholder the impression of great weight—an impression which is not 
sustained in the hand, where the bird is seen to be disappointingly light, all 
feathers, in fact, as compared with a chunky Scoter, which does not equal it in 
extent of wing by a foot or more. 
The pursuit of the Brant is, of course, a much less simple matter than 
formerly. When the use of motor-boats is forsworn (and it is not always, in 
spite of the law’s requirement), recourse must be had to decoys and blinds, or 
else dependence placed in the casual carelessness of passing birds. The Goose 
is no such “goose” in spite of many fables, and Branta is adding a good many 
convolutions to his cerebral hemispheres in the course of his contest with man, 
The honest sportsman probably earns what he gets and if only adequate pro- 
tection may be secured to the birds in their breeding haunts, we shall have 
tastes of wild goose for some years to come. 
Black Brants with us are exclusively maritime, and their food consists 
largely of sea wrack, for which the birds not only dip but dive as well. This 
vegetable diet is supplemented by whatever comes handiest in the way of small 
crustaceans, sea-worms and shell-fish. The flesh, on this account, is never 
equal to that of wheat-fed Canadas, and by spring it frequently rates no higher 
than that of Coots. 
From the esthetic standpoint the most interesting phase of Brant life is 
the mellow cronk, cronk, cronk, which the birds frequently emit whether in 
flight or at rest. From the back bay near Dungeness in April rises a babel like 
the spring offering of a giant frog-pond, a chorus of thousands of croaking 
voices, among which the thrilling basso of bull frogs predominates. 
The Black Brant nests altogether within the Arctic Circle, and altho eggs 
have been taken at Cape Bathurst and Point Barrow, it is surmised to breed 
still more extensively in some undiscovered land far to the north of the last- 
named promontory. 
No. 338. 
FULVOUS TREE DUCK. 
A. O. U. No. 178 Dendrocygna bicolor ( Vieill.). 
Description.—.1dult male and female: General color yellowish brown or pale 
cinnamon, darker on head, nearly uniform on underparts, but flanks striped with 
lighter fulvous; a black central stripe on hind-head and neck; upper back and 
