Black brant. 85 



from the middle, and going in opposite directions; 

 caused by individual birds changing the level of their 

 flight, and at a distance giving the impression of a shiver 

 passing through the mass. This frequent graceful 

 movement is very attractive to watch, and one keeps his 

 eyes fixed on the birds, wondering where the next wave 

 is going to begin. The same action occurs in the flight 

 of certain species of Ducks. As a rule the Black Brant 

 flies low. I think this is characteristic of the two species, 

 and while the birds often change their altitude as they 

 speed along, now just over the water, and again at no 

 very great distance above it, they never rise to any great 

 height. When flying, they keep to the coast line, fol- 

 lowing it in all its sinuosity, rarely passing over any 

 part of the land, or else performing their migrations far 

 out to sea. In the spring they are most abundant along 

 the western Alaskan coast, but the birds are scarce in the 

 autumn and must pass on their southward journey over 

 the ocean out of sight of land. 



Mr. MacFarlane, who found the nest and eggs of this 

 species in Liverpool and Franklin bays, near the mouth 

 of the Anderson River, and at various points along the 

 shores of the Arctic Sea, says it was merely a depression 

 in the ground, lined with a quantity of down. The num- 

 ber of eggs, which were a dull ivory, or grayish white 

 color, was from five to seven, six being the usual com- 

 plement. Some of these nests were placed on small 

 islands in fresh-water ponds, and others on the shore or 

 on islands in the two bays above mentioned. Some few 

 individuals are said to breed on the shores of Norton 

 Sound, in the marshes with Hutchins' Goose, but the 

 great bulk of the migratory hosts pass on farther north. 

 The Black Brant is a rare straggler to the Atlantic coast, 

 and only a few individuals have ever been killed there. 



