THE BRANT. 485 



sportsman a great deal of fatigue before he can kill them. Except 

 in very calm weather, they rarely sleep on the water, but roost all 

 night in the marshes. When the shallow bays are frozen, they 

 seek the mouths of inlets near the sea, occasionally visiting the 

 air-holes in the ice ; but these bays are seldom so completely frozen 

 as to prevent them from feeding on the bars. 



" The flight of the Wild Geese is heavy and laborious, generally 

 in a straight line, or in two lines, approximating to a point thus, > : 

 in both cases, the van is led by an old gander, who, every now and 

 then, pipes his well-known honk, as if to ask how they come on ; 

 and the honk of * All's well ' is generally returned by some of the 

 party. Their course is in a straight line, with the exception of 

 the undulations of their flight. When bewildered in foggy weather, 

 they appear sometimes to be in great distress, flying about in an 

 irregular manner, and for a considerable time over the same quar- 

 ter, making a great clamor. On these occasions, should they 

 approach the earth, and alight, which they sometimes do, to rest 

 and recollect themselves, the only hospitality they meet with is 

 death and destruction from a whole neighborhood already in arms 

 for their ruin." 



BEENICLA BEENTA. Stephens. 

 The Brant. 



Anas bernida, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 198. Wils. Am. Orn., VIII. 

 (1814) 131. 



Anser bernida, Nuttall. Man., II. 359. Aud. Orn. Biog., V. (1831) 24, 610. 

 75., Birds Am., VI. (1843) 203. 



Bernida brenta, Stephens. Shaw's Zool., XII. (1824) 46. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill and feet, head, neck, and body anterior to the wings, primary quills, and 

 tail, black ; the secondary quills nearly black ; on each side of the middle of the 

 neck is a small white crescent, streaked with black ; the lower eyelids with a very 

 faint trace of white feathers ; the black of the jugulum is abruptly defined against 

 the bluish silvery-gray of the remaining under parts, the feathers of which have the 

 basal portions bluish-gray ; the axillars and insides of the wings showing a darker 

 tint of the same ; the gray of the belly passes gradually into white behind, the tail 

 being encircled all round and concealed by this color ; the back and wing coverts 

 are grayish-blue, with slightly paler edges ; the rump is of a similar, but darker and 

 more uniform blue ; the secondaries have some concealed whitish on the inner webs 

 towards the base ; iris dark-hazel. 



Length, twenty-three and fifty one-hundredths inches ; wing, twelve and seventy, 

 five one-hundredths; tarsus, two and twenty-six one hundredths; commissure, one 

 and forty one-hundredths inches. 



