Geese 



Range — Arctic sea, nesting within the Arctic Circle, to the Caro- 

 linas in winter. Most common on Atlantic coast; rare in the 

 interior. 



Season — Winter resident, or spring and autumn migrant in the 

 United States. 



Flocks of brants continue to fly southward down the Atlantic 

 coast from October until December, some alighting on muddy 

 flats around the estuaries of rivers and creeks, on sand bars and 

 in shallow inlets, to feed on eel-grass and other marine plants; 

 but the majority passing rapidly by the shores of Canada and our 

 northern states. High flyers, sea lovers, they keep well out 

 from land during the migrations rather than follow the coast line, 

 if any distance may be saved by a bee line from point to point. 

 It is only in hazy weather that they fly low. A reconnoitre by 

 the veterans must first be made after the confused mass of hoarse 

 gabblers rises from the feeding grounds; but after this spiral soar- 

 ing has ended and the birds are once fairly started on their jour- 

 ney, neither pause nor uncertainty may be detected in their 

 steady flight. They fly in more compact bodies than the long- 

 drawn-out wedges of Canada geese; no leader appears to direct 

 their course, yet the mass moves as one bird, slowly and sedately. 

 Some one has compared the trumpet-like sounds made by a flock 

 of brants with the noise of a pack of fox-hounds in full cry. 

 Occasionally these geese are found in the interior, for all their 

 strong maritime preferences; but usually it is the black brant that 

 is mistaken for them there and on the Pacific slope. 



On Long Island and southward these dusky waders walk 

 about at low tide, tearing up eel-grass by the roots when they 

 enter the marshes to feed in gabbling, honking companies. 

 Watched from a distance — for a close approach, no matter how 

 stealthy, frightens these wary birds to wing — they appear rather 

 sluggish and move heavily over the mud flats, nipping every 

 plant that grows in their path. Youthful gunners constantly 

 mistake them for some of the larger sea-ducks and wonder that 

 they do not dive for food. Brants never dive unless wounded. 

 While the tide is out they feed constantly, stopping only to 

 gabble and gossip, and quarrel from excessive greediness, with 

 the result of being too heavy and lazy with much gorging to fly 

 out to sea when the tide comes in and lifts them off their feet. 

 After sundown they go streaming in long lines out to deep, open 



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