252 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
it would be safe to say that they are not fish-eaters even 
to a small extent. 
Brants go very far north to raise their young, proba- 
bly as far as the climate or land will permit them, for 
they were seen flying toward the Pole by all explorers 
who went in search of that locality, Those that are 
barren do not crave for the Arctic regions so much as 
those that are fertile, they being content to spend their 
summer between the parallels of sixty degrees and sey- 
enty-two degrees, whereas some of their kindred go ten 
or twelve degrees further at least, judging from reports 
of Arctic navigators. When migrating, they often move 
in large skeins, but not in such vast numbers as other 
species of the family, if I except the Canadian goose and 
its varieties. Some old wild-fowlers say that the black 
brant (Branta bernicla), when it starts on a journey dur- 
ing a gale, fills its crop with sand, or ballast, as they call 
it, and then darts away at a high rate of speed. This 
species may be readily identified in the air, as it does not 
assume the V-shape when flying in flocks, or skeins, and 
its voice is quite thin, though musical. Its flesh is highly 
edible, and has little, if any, of the flavor which it would 
have were it nurtured on marine animals of any 
kind. The black brant, which is confined almost exclu- 
sively to the Atlantic Coast, being rarely found west of 
the Rocky Mountains, is about two feet in length, and the 
head, neck, anterior portion of the body, and tail 
and quills are black. The upper tail coverts, the streaks 
on the sides of the neck, and the upper eyelids are white; 
the back and under parts are brownish-gray, except the 
posterior portion of the body and the under tail coverts. 
This species is supplanted on the Pacific Coast by the 
variety nigricans, which is the most duck-like of all the 
Anserine in that section of country. Its head and neck 
are a deep-black, the remainder of the body, except the 
rump, being a sooty plumbeous. The throat has a white 
