November, 1922. 



The Canadian Pieli>-Naturalist 



145 



of Greenland in a southwesterly direction. It would seem 

 quite possible for Brant to come up along the west coast of 

 Greenland, following the coast pretty closely and, after striking 

 the south side of Disko island, to swing around so as to come 

 from the northeast in the locality of Godhavn. The Black Brant 

 of the western Arctic, so far as my observations go, seem to 

 follow the coast line pretty closely in their migrations, though 

 of course when necessary to 'make a passage' across a strait 

 they are not averse to doing so. I think a good deal of the 

 confusion about American and European forms of the same 

 species is due to not having enough specimens together from 

 both sides of the Atlantic. The European museums have 

 large series of European birds and the American museums have 

 the .\merican-taken specimens, and seldom is there an oppor 

 tunity to examine both sets of specimens side by side." — 

 R. M. Anderson. 



WHAT I know about the Brant in Greenland 

 is not much beyond what has been written 

 by H. Winge in his excellent "Gronlands 

 Fugle", Meddelelser om Gronland 21, 1898. My 

 tsation, is situated near the colony of Godhavn on 

 South Disko. This place is one of the very few spots 

 known to me in Greenland regularly touched by 

 migrating Brants. As a joke I used to say: "The 

 Brants are coming June 3rd at 6 o'clock p.m." 

 and, in fact, during the thirteen years of my 

 residence at the place, the first Brants were seen 

 from June 1st to 3rd without any regard to weather 

 conditions. I do not know where they cross 

 Disko Bay; to us they come from northeast, 

 flying along the steep wall of the basalt mountain 

 "Skarvefjaeld". Leaving the shore here, they 

 cross the small "Sortesandsbugt" along the border 

 of the last winter ice, steering straight to Uper- 

 navik naze, where the natives shoot at the flocks. 



The neck of Godhavn Peninsula between the 

 Harbour and Sortesandsbugt is very low and 

 sandy. If they would fly over that neck every 

 one would escape from the shooting, but they 

 never do. The flocks are usually very great, 

 from one to several hundreds each, and normally 

 several hundred thousand Brants pass us every 

 year. Some years, however, the number is much 

 smaller. 



Curious is the varying of the dates for migration 

 Now the date is as said about the 3rd of June. 

 In the years about 1812 they came the last days 

 of May, about 1840 the date was between the 8th 

 and 12th of June, and in 1882 the dates were 8th 

 to 11th June. Each of the years mentioned does 

 not mean that single year,but a series of subsequent 

 years of varying number. 



I have hitherto applied in vain to the natives 

 for other migration stations than this; only 

 casually small flocks or single stragglers were 

 observed. They are often seen on Northeast 

 Disko, and one of my informants believes that 

 they nest there. But as that region is uninhabited 

 and very rarely visited I doubt the correctness 

 of the statement. North of the 73rd parallel 

 nests were known in former times. Now I think 

 nests do not occur except at Smith Sound, and 

 Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw, member of the Crocker 



Land Expedition, told me that nests were com- 

 paratively scrace on the north coast of Greenland, 

 whereas Ellesmere Land and Grant Land were 

 the veritable El Dorado of the Brant. 



Once I .succeeded in getting a live pair on North 

 Disko in August. The female had a broken wing 

 and the male could not or would not quit her, so 

 my Eskimo companion ran them down and 

 caught them. I had them in my boat some 

 fourteen days, until I got home. They were very 

 greedy and I fed them with everything obtainable, 

 but mostly with Equisetum arvense. After my 

 return the female drowned by an accident and the 

 male was killed when the frosts came. 



I (formerly) believed that the Brant wintered 

 in Europe only, and not in America, and it was 

 to me a favourite object for fairy tales to chil- 

 dren: the Brants coming June the third, steering 

 straightway from Europe through snow and gales 

 to our little naze and building their nests on far 

 Ellesmere Land were most fascinating. Now I 

 see that they do winter in America, the story 

 becomes a little less fascinating, but more natural. 



When I come back, I shall try to send out 

 question schedules over the whole of West Green- 

 land; our Eskimo are intelligent and interested 

 observers. If I succeed in getting some valuable 

 information about the tracks of the Brant, I shall 

 send it to you. 



Copenhagen, April 8, 1920 



As much has been published since the book by 

 Herluf Winge on the Birds of Greenland in 1898, 

 I went today to Mr. Winge to get information 

 from our first authority. Winge considers all 

 Brants from East as well as West Greenland to 

 be the same race, namely, the light-bellied glauco- 

 gastra, and he does not doubt that all Greenland 

 Brants migrate to America and not to Europe. 

 About the racial value of the glaucogastra, Mr. 

 Winge was rather uncertain. Ordinarily he is 

 rather conservative in taxonomy. 



I think the statement by Cooke, quoted by 

 you, as to the breeding of the Brant down to 62° 

 in West Greenland is wrong. It does breed at 

 73°, but only casually, and as far as I know, 

 partially from verbal information by Mr. Ekblaw 

 only a few birds breed in the northernmost part 

 of Greenland, whilst Ellesmere Land is the great 

 breeding place for the millions of Brants passing us . 



