CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 357 



gregated in bunches, much as last year, but there were more people on 

 the Bay in boats this time and the birds moved about too much to 

 satisfactorily map their locations." (For map of Bodega Bay showing 

 location of black brant on February 11, 1933, see California Fish and 

 Game, vol. 19, 1933, p. 256.) Linsdale and Behle counted a total of 

 1298 brant on Bodega Bay this year. The tides here were similar to 

 those listed above for Tomales Bay. 



Captain of Game Wardens W. J. Harp and the writer counted the 

 brant on Humboldt Bay on February 12, 1934. The weather was clear 

 and calm that day with the following tides : high tide, 10.01 a.m., 

 7.2 feet ; low tide, 5.15 p.m., -1.2 feet. We devoted the morn- 

 ing, commencing at 9.30 a.m. to census taking on South Bay, where, 

 working from outboard motorboat we secured a very satisfactory count 

 totalling 10,860 brant. In the afternoon we circled North Bay by 

 automobile, stopping and scanning its placid waters with glasses from 

 every vantage point and concluded that 6000 brant fairly represented 

 the number of birds present there that afternoon. Thus the total census 

 for Humboldt Bay was 16,860 brant. 



J. B. Pliillips, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, who is located at 

 the Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, kindly advised that he 

 noted approximately 400 black brant on the Pacific Ocean off the 

 Station on February 11, 1934. This is an unusual number of birds 

 for tliis locality, where the species is usually noted only in migration 

 and these brant peen by Phillips were doubtless moving along the coast 

 between two of our larger bays favored with growths of eel grass and 

 fi-equented by this species. 



Recapitulation of the 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1934 Black Brant Censuses 



LoraUtv l^^l ^^32 19S3 ]93.', 



Humboldt Bay Unsatisfactory 29,415 5,000 16,860 



Bodega Bay None made 3,200 977 1,298 



Tomales Bay 9,445 6,285 7,409 5,565 



Drakes Bay None made 2,108 318 2,189 



Morro Bay 4,493 2,938 None made 3,895 



Mission Bay 71 No birds 115 154 



San Diego Bay No birds No birds No birds 7 



1933 FALL BRANT MIGRATION IN CALIFORNIA 



The fall migration of black brant in California in 1933 seems to 

 have been the earliest one on record since observations have been 

 especially sought by me during the past ten years, or perhaps the 

 interest in this matter that my queries have instilled into various 

 persons has resulted in a more careful watch being kept for the.se birds, 

 resulting in earlier records. At any rate, numbers of brant were seen 

 on Tomales Bay and in the ocean off Tomales Point during the last 

 two weeks of October, 1933. H. J. Jensen who resides at Hamlet on 

 Tomales Bay told me on November first last that several hundred brant 

 stopped in the bay for a day or two on or about October 25 and tliat a 

 few individuals were noted there on October 19 and every day follow- 

 ing. Mr. H. C. Conrad, San Francisco, told me that he went fishing 

 in the Pacific Ocean off Tomales Bay on October 14 where he saw 

 flocks of brant averaging 50 birds each that totaled 300 individuals. 

 I was gunning for ducks on Tomales Bay on November 1, 1933, when 

 I saw a flock consisting of 16 brant fly into the bay from the ocean 

 about midday. I was unable to revisit Tomales Bay last fall until 



