BRANT SHOOTING. 28 



o 



Mr. C. R. Purdy, whose long experience as a brant 

 shooter entitles him to speak with all authority, has 

 kindly contributed the following notes on brant shoot- 

 ing in the Great South Bay : 



"Brant shooting in the Great South Bay is entirely 

 confined to the spring months. Although a few flocks 

 pass through in their southern migration, they never 

 stop in the bay in any numbers. In the spring, how- 

 ever, they select these waters as a resting place on their 

 return to their northern breeding ground. A few scat- 

 tering flocks drop in the bay about the middle of 

 March, and from that time on, the flight improves each 

 day until about the first week in April, when it is at its 

 height and the fowl are in the bay in great numbers. 



"If we could have in the fall the same number of 

 brant that we have in the spring they would furnish 

 magnificent shooting, but, arriving as they do in the 

 spring months after being shot at all winter in south- 

 ern waters, they seem to be familiar with all the devices 

 used by man for their capture, and it is only by hard 

 work and under extremely favorable circumstances 

 that even a fair bag can be made. My average, as I 

 find on looking over the score book, is from thirty to 

 thirty-five birds a week, and my best day in fifteen 

 years was forty-seven brant. 



"Brant prefer to feed on the shoals immediately 

 under the beach, and as they cannot dive for their food 

 they wait until the ebb tide is partly down, when they 

 can readily reach the young marine grasses by dipping. 

 It is in such places that the gunner rigs out his shooting 



