186 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



fall, flying at the same time with the Scoters. Now they are 

 uncommon where he shoots. He saw a flock of about fifty 

 at Sandwich in the fall of 1907, and a small flock in 1908. 

 Daniel Giraud Elliot, author of standard works on wild- 

 fowl, shore birds and game birds, who has had perhaps as 

 long and varied experience with the wild-fowl as any man 

 now living, says (1898) that constant warfare against the 

 Brant has greatly depleted their numbers, and in many places 

 where they were once numerous they are now seen in small 

 bodies or are absent altogether. 



Comparatively few observers reported to me in 1908 on 

 the Brant, as it is commonly seen in but few localities. 

 Fifteen noted the species as increasing in numbers and forty- 

 one reported it as decreasing. Thirteen of the fifteen reports 

 of increase came from Barnstable County. The reports 

 point to the well-known fact that on the New England coast 

 the Brant has concentrated now at a few outlying points, 

 such as Chatham, Monomoy, Nantucket, Muskeget, and Point 

 Judith. Many years ago they were abundant in the waters 

 about Cape Ann, in Boston harbor, on the south shore, in Buz- 

 zards Bay, and, in fact, all along our coast. They were for- 

 merly plentiful at Brant Point on Waquoit Bay. A point of 

 the same name in Nantucket harbor and Brant Rock on the 

 south shore are said by old residents to have been famous for 

 the Brant that frequented them in olden times. Mr. Henry V. 

 Greenough of Brookline says that he judges that the Brant 

 have decreased about Monomoy perhaps one-third in his time. 

 He says that perhaps the reduction in the birds may be laid to 

 the great increase in power boats, which frighten the birds away 

 to a long distance, and they are less prone to stay several 

 weeks, as they used to. Dr. Henry B. Bigelow of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology says, "formerly Brant were very 

 abundant in winter in all the salt broad-waters from Chinco- 

 teague, Md., to Cape Hatteras. On the eastern shore of Vir- 

 ginia, Brant have been very much reduced in numbers. We 

 might suppose that this reduction was due to the increased 

 oyster business and to other disturbances of their feeding 

 grounds. Were this true, we should expect to find their num- 



