122 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



i'73. Brant. 



Branta bemicla (Linn.) Scopoll 1769. 



Said not to breed in Greenland lower than Lat. 70° but does so 

 in great numbers in the Polar Sea. {Arct. Man.) This species 

 breeds in numbers on the coasts and islands of Hudson Bay and 

 the Arctic Sea, and is rarely seen in the interior. [Richardson^ 



This species is a very abundant migrant on the whole Atlantic 

 coast, filling at times the heads of all the bays and feeding on sea- 

 weed, chiefly of the genus Ulva. It is quite frequent in the 

 St. Lawrence and is known to ascend the Ottawa to thirty miles 

 below the city. It is casual in Lake Ontario and said to be a rare 

 migrant in western Ontario. Occasionally seen in Manitoba ; not 

 seen to the west of that province. 



MUSEUM specimen. 



One specimen shot at St. John, New Brunswick, by Mr. Cham- 

 berlain. 



174. Black Brant. 



Branta nigricans (Lawr.) Bannister. 1870. 



About the middle of May this goose makes its appearance 

 about the mouth of the Yukon, and after a week or ten days 

 passes northward to breed. Its breeding-ground lies consi- 

 derably to the north, for during the cruise of the Corwin, in the 

 summer of i88i,we first met it in the vicinity of Point Barrow, 

 where the Eskimos brought many of them on board. {Nelson.) 

 About the middle of May a great stream of these birds pours 

 northward between St. Michael Island and Stewart Island. Few 

 are seen in the fall as they then pass through the interior going 

 south. ( Turner.) This bird appears at the end of the main spring 

 migration of the water-fowl, but not in considerable numbers. A 

 few remain to breed and are seen flying about the tundra during 

 June. After the middle of August they begin to fly across the 

 isthmus of Pergmiak coming west along the shore of Elson Bay, 

 crossing to the ocean and turning southward along the coast. 

 {Murdoch.) An abundant winter' resident along the coasts of 

 Vancouver Island and British Columbia. (^Fannin.) 



