192 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



their fate. In some seasons practically no young birds ap- 

 pear. A succession of such seasons with unchecked shooting 

 might reduce the Brant to the verge of extinction. 



When it is considered that the Brant has been hunted for 

 centuries little seems to be recorded about its food and habits. 

 Hapgood says that in confinement it eats dead wood and feeds 

 readily upon corn, but it never has been known to breed. 

 It does not dive for its food, but will dive well when wounded, 

 and swim under water. At low water it tears up eelgrass, 

 and after the tide rises continues feeding on what it has torn 

 up. In the north it is said to feed on grass and berries, and 

 at times it takes moUusks and other small marine animals. 

 Its flesh is considered excellent, but its quality depends on 

 the season, and its food. 



BLACK BRANT (Branta nigricans). 



Length. — About 25 inches. 



Adult. — Similar to Brant but darker; black of head and neck not ending 

 abruptly on breast, but extending in a wash over flanks and much of 

 belly; broad white collar on neck, interrupted behind; lower parts 

 white behind. 

 Range. — Western North America. Breeds on arctic coast and islands 

 from Point Barrow near mouth of Anderson River north to Melville 

 Island; common on Siberian coast; winters on Pacific coast from Brit- 

 ish Columbia to Lower California; in interior to Nevada and on Asiatic 

 coast to Japan; recorded as a straggler to Massachusetts, New York 

 and New Jersey. 



History. 

 The Black Brant is a Pacific coast species which breeds 

 on the coast of northeastern Siberia, northern Alaska and 

 in the western part of the North American arctic archipel- 

 ago, and migrates south in vast numbers along the Pacific 

 coast. It is accidental here. There is a single record in Mas- 

 sachusetts of a bird taken at Chatham in the spring of 1883.^ 

 There are three New York records (Eaton). Our eastern 

 Brant is sometimes called the Black Brant, but this is an 

 error. 



I Cory, C. B.: Auk, 1884, p. 96. 



