252 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



it would be safe to say that they are not fish-eaters even 

 to a small extent. 



Brants go very far north to raise their young, proba- 

 bly as far as the climate or land will permit them, for 

 they were seen flying toward the Pole by all explorers 

 who went in search of that locality. Those that are 

 barren do not crave for the Arctic regions so much as 

 those that are fertile, they being content to spend their 

 summer between the parallels of sixty degrees and sev- 

 enty-two degrees, whereas some of their kindred go ten 

 or twelve degrees further at least, judging from reports 

 of Arctic navigators. When migrating, they often move 

 in large skeins, but not in such vast numbers as other 

 species of the family, if I except the Canadian goose and 

 its varieties. Some old wild-fowlers say that the black 

 brant {Branta hernicla), when it starts on a journey dur- 

 ing a gale, fills its crop with sand, or ballast, as they call 

 it, and then darts away at a high rate of speed. This 

 species may be readily identified in the air, as it does not 

 assume the V-shape when flying in flocks, or skeins, and 

 its voice is quite thin, though musical. Its flesh is highly 

 edible, and has little, if any, of the flavor which it would 

 have were it nurtured on marine animals of any 

 kind. The black brant, which is confined almost exclu- 

 sively to the Atlantic Coast, being rarely found west of 

 the Rocky Mountains, is about two feet in length, and the 

 head, neck, anterior portion of the body, and tail 

 and quills are black. The upper tail coverts, the streaks 

 on the sides of the neck, and the upper eyelids are white; 

 the back and under parts are brownish-gray, except the 

 posterior portion of the body and the under tail coverts. 

 This species is supplanted on the Pacific Coast by the 

 variety nigricans, which is the most duck-like of all the 

 AnserincB in that section of country. Its head and neck 

 are a deep-black, the remainder of the body, except the 

 rump, being a sooty plumbeous. The throat has a white 



