_ BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 81 
very few of this species are noticed. Arriving presumably 
about the same time, these are believed all to pass further 
north to breed, and return to us about the first of October, or a 
little earlier. I cannot estimate their relative numbers in 
either migration, neither do I know of their having any dis- 
tinguishable habit which enables me to identify them until they 
are in my hands. This is also true of their specific characters, 
only differing from Canadensis in the measurements, which 
grade into each other through occasional individuals as has 
been abundantly demonstrated. 
BRANTA BERNICLA (LL). (173.) 
BRANT. 
While this species is not an abundant one within our bound- 
aries, it is relatively a fairly represented one. Appearing in 
small flocks simultaneously with the others about the 25th to 
the 380th of March, they remain about three weeks, in the lakes, 
ponds, and estuaries of sluggish streams, where considerable 
numbers of them are shot for the market, after which they 
move on to much higher latitudes to rear their young. Speci- 
mens of the Brant may be found in the collections of the tax- 
idermists, and different scientific societies in the State which 
have been secured in the migrations from year to year, repre- 
senting both sexes and age. In autumn they reach the north- 
western portions of the State in considerable fiocks about the 
first of October and remain as late as any others before pass- 
ing further to the south to winter. Mr. Washburn, who visited 
the region of the Mille Lacs lake, and Otter Tail lake, in the 
interests of this department of the Natural History Survey of 
the State, extending his observations from the 9th of October 
to the 10th of November, 1885, found these birds ‘‘ quite numer 
ous near Fergus Falls,” and similar reports reached me from 
Grant, and Bigstone counties. 
It is rarely the case that some of them cannot be found in 
the game stalls of the City Market during the periods of their 
usual presence and migrations. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill, feet, head, neck, primary quills, tail, and body anterior 
to the wings, black; secondary quills nearly black; on each 
side of the middle of the neck, a small white crescent, streaked 
with black; lower eyelids with a very faint trace of white 
feathers; black of the jugulum abruptly defined against the 
