142 AMERICAN GAME. 



which in my opinion is inferior both to the Canada and the 

 Brent Goose ; and though I have heard the Snow-Goose 

 highly landed for its delicacy and juiciness, I believe we 

 shall do no injustice to any in declaring the Brant, facile 

 et nullo discrimine princeps. 



It is worthy of remark that the habits of this bird are 

 greatly different in England and in this country, inasmuch 

 as there they are stated " to spend the winter months in 

 the rivers, lakes and marshes in the interior parts, feed- 

 ing materially upon the roots and also the blades of the 

 long, coarse grasses, and plants which grow in the wa- 

 ter." Here they are entirely marine birds, frequenting 

 the outer estuaries of the large rivers, the land-locked 

 lagoons or sea bays, which lie between our outer beaches 

 and the shores proper of the continent, for so many de- 

 grees of latitude along our Atlantic seaboard, and never, 

 so far as I know or have heard, entering our rivers proper, 

 or being killed in any fresh inland waters. So 

 strongly is this peculiarity marked in the Brent Goose, 

 that when they leave their feeding-grounds to the 

 northward, compelled by stress of climate in winter, for 

 lower latitudes, and again when they take their depart- 

 ure for the Arctic regions, impelled 



creandae * 

 Prolis amore, gravique cupidine nidificandi, 



* By the affection for the young which they are about to rear, and 

 the urgent desire of nidification. Lucretius on Brent Geese. 



