80 



173^ Brant, pb. — la beenache commune. Branta bernicla. L, 26. Much like the 

 Canada Goose but smaller; head, neck, and upper breast black; a narrow, broken collar 

 of white on neck. 



Distinctions. A small dark Canada Goose without face mark. 



Field Marks. Small size, dark breast, and lack of face mark. The white V over tail, 

 displayed when flying low, will also distinguish the Brant from any of the larger, black 

 Ducks but not from the Canada Goose. 



Nesting. On the ground, nest of grasses lined with down. 



Distribution. As a species, circumpolar. The American Brant breeds in the eastern 

 Arctic region, migrating down the Atlantic coasts, rarely in the interior. 



SUBSPECIES. The Brant is a circumpolar species. The New World form, the 

 American Brant B. b. glaucogastra, is subspecifically distinct from the Old World bird 

 which has never been recorded in America. The Black Brant B. nigricans of the west is 

 characterized by having the black of the breast suffused over the underparts; but it occurs 

 in eastern Canada only as an accidental straggler. 



The Brant is a small Goose. It occurs on the lower St. Lawrence and 

 the sea-coast in flocks of hundreds, but is scarce or only a straggler in the 

 interior or on the Great Lakes. 



Subfamily— Cygninae. Swans. 



General Description. Very large white water fowl; excepting perhaps the Whooping 

 Crane or the Wild Turkey, the largest of American birds. 



Distinctions. Size combined with colour is sufficient to diagnose the two Swans, 

 lores (space between eye and bill) unfeathered. Bill begins high on the forehead, at base 

 is almost rectangular in cross-section and tip is provided with a flat nail. 



Field Marks. Size and colour: they are our only large, all white birds. 1 



Nesting. On the ground, nest of grasses lined with down plucked from parent bird. 



Distribution. Most of the Swans are found in the northern hemisphere but are not 

 entirely confined to it. In America, they now nest in the far north; though originally 

 the Trumpeter, now verging on extinction, bred as far south as some of the northern United 

 States. 



From time immemorial Swans have figured largely in Old World 

 folk-lore and the fairy tales of childhood are filled with references to them, 

 but it comes with a little shock of surprise to many people to learn that 

 even today wild Swans are actually common in Canada. Geese are wild 

 and wary, but a Swan is even wilder and more wary. Its long neck 

 allows it to feed in deeper water than other non-diving species and through 

 the day it keeps well out in deep water, where unobserved approach is 

 impossible. It rarely comes into the shallow marshes that may hide the 

 huntsman and, therefore, it is rarely taken. 



The common names of the Swans of the northern hemisphere are indi- 

 cative of their vocal powers; thus in America we have the Whistler 

 and the Trumpeter, and in Europe the Whooper and the Mute Swans. 

 Peculiar and complicated modifications of the windpipe, in the form of 

 various convolutions in special bony recesses of the breast bone or sternum, 

 are, evidently, directly connected with the voice and their complexity 

 increases directly with the quality of the voice as indicated by the above 

 descriptive names; thus the Mute Swan is without any tracheal convolu- 

 tion and the highest complexity is reached in the Trumpeter and Whooper. 



1 Other large white birds occurring in Canada all have more or less black on flight feathers. 



