252 ZOOLOGY. 



Hutchins s brant appears to be the most abundant of the goose tribe along the coast of this 

 Territory, where they appear in large flocks in October, and remain about the bays during 

 most of the winter, disappearing only in the coldest month for a short time. They feed 

 principally on the mud flats at low tide, eating vegetable and animal food which they find there. 



Among large numbers that I have examined, I have never observed the peculiar differences 

 characterizing the white-necked brant. C. 



BERNICLA NIGRICANS, (Lawrence,) C ass in. 



Black Brant. 



Jlnser nigricans, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lye. IV, 1846, 171 ; plate. 



Bernicla nigricans, CASSIN, 111. I, 11, 1853, 52 ; pi. x. BAIRD, Gen. Rep. Birds, 1858, 767. 



S P . CH. Head, neck, and body anterior to the wings deep black, passing into dark sooty plumbeous on the rest of the 

 body, this color beneath exfnding nearly to the anus, and above shading insensibly into the black of the rump. Middle of 

 the throat with a white patch extending round on the sides, and somewhat streaked with black. No white on the eyelids. 

 Sides of rump and of base of tail, with upper and under tail coverts concealing the tail, and space across the anus, white ; 

 primary and secondary quills and tail black. Feathers on the sides of the body beneath wings like the belly, but with white 

 tips. The measurements given in the general report are as follows : Length, 29 inches ; wing, 13.80 ; tarsus, 2.30 ; commissure, 

 1.50. A female obtained by Dr. Suckley, near Port Townsend, Washington Territory, measured differently: Length, 23.75 

 inches ; extent, 44.75 ; wing, 12.75 ; commissure, 1.50 ; from angle of eye to tip of bill, 2.25 ; height of bill at the base, 0.87; 

 bill along ridge, 1.31; tarsus, 2.25; tale from tip of coccyx, 3.38. Bill, black; iris, dark (brown?); feet and tarsi, dusky 

 bronze. Lower tail coverts extended slightly beyond tail. Collar on the nape, interrupted behind by an isthmus of b ack, 

 which, when the feathers were stroked smooth, was about half an inch in width. The collar was mottled by the occurrence of 

 black feathers, and anteriorly was about an inch wide. 



On the 20th of January, 1857, I obtained a brant at Sekwim bay, near Port Townsend, 

 Washington Territory, which at once struck me as identical with the B. nigricans of LaAvrence, 

 and figured by Cassin in his work on the &quot;Birds of California,&quot; &amp;lt;fec. ; and upon comparing the 

 specimen with the description there given, I was pleased to find that it agreed in all essential 

 particulars. The skin was preserved, and is now in the Smithsonian collection; its measure 

 ments are those above given. The breast and belly are somewhat lighter than in Cassin s figure, 

 being blackish dusky, with a slight brownish tinge posteriorly. The bird also differs from the 

 common brant in having no white markings on the head. These brant are extremely abundant 

 about the Straits of Fuca in winter. 



They appear to prefer the vicinity of the coast, and subsist, by preference, on sedge grass 

 growing near salt water. They also spend much time in the water, being more duck-like in 

 their habits than other geese. I have seen them frequently alight near the shore in salt water, 

 and at other times on bare sand spits, as if in search of small shellfish. The body of this goose 

 is scarcely larger than a mallard s. The specimen skinned was eaten afterwards, and found to 

 be tender and juicy, with but little disagreeable fishy flavor. Their cry appears to be a feeble 

 imitation of the honking of other geese, mixed with sundry noises resembling those of the 

 &quot;old squaws.&quot; I may have been deceived in this, as at the time I observed them with 

 reference to their voices they were alarmed and rising, and there were probably some of the 

 latter birds in the vicinity. 



In flight this brant is more desultory than other species of geese. I noticed a flock, which 

 probably contained five hundred individuals, which, in rising from the water, broke into twenty 

 or thirty small companies, all apparently flying at random, and but few taking the wedge-shaped 

 order of progression usual to wild geese. S. 



