Goose-shooting 247 



On Cape Cod, brant are found in the spring 

 and fall ; they are shot from boxes sunk on the 

 long sandy points, reaching out into the bay or 

 on the bars. Live brant decoys are used if possi- 

 ble. Here the flight is regulated by the tides, so 

 the time for shooting is short. During the last 

 of the ebb and the first of the flow, the birds feed 

 on the flats. 



Sometime in April comes a pleasant day, warm 

 and sunny, with a southwest wind. The several 

 thousand brant in Chatham Bay feed greedily 

 until the rising tide removes their food from reach. 

 Now they assemble in deep water in the centre of 

 the bay, study the weather, and discuss the advis- 

 ability of journeying toward their summer home. 

 Soon fifteen or twenty birds take wing, fly back 

 and forth over the others, honking loudly, and 

 circling ever higher until they have reached a 

 considerable altitude ; then the long line swings 

 straight, headed northeast. Out over the beach, 

 over the ocean it goes, and the birds in it will not 

 be seen again. Then another flock follows, tak- 

 ing exactly the same course; flock after flock 

 succeeds, and the movement is kept up until dark. 

 You may sit in the blind next day or sail across 

 the bay, you will see no brant save a few strag- 

 glers : branting is through for the year. 



The line of flight from Cape Cod is to the 

 islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Prince 



