Terms, Five Dollars a Year. ) 

 Ten Cents a Copy. J 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1875. 



) Volume 5, Number 4. 



1 IT Chatham St. (CityHallSqr.) 



For Forest and Stream. 



{Anser l>emicla—~LmE. ) 



THEIR HABITS- MIGRATION 

 ING PLACES. 



BREED- 



NONE of our game birds are perhaps so little known 

 as the brant of the East coast of North America and 

 Arctic region. This bird must not be confounded with the 

 brant of the Mississippi Valley, (Anser Albifrons — Aud.) or 

 with that of the Pacific, (Anser Nigrican — Law.) The sub- 

 ject of these remarks has been so often and so accurately 

 described by ornithologists as to require no further specific 

 characterization. We would, however, remark that our 

 observation has led us to believe there is no sexual differ- 

 ence in plumage or size. The young birds are a shade 

 paler brown than the old ones and have the wing coverts 

 more deeply margined with white. They are exclusive 

 and reserved in their habits, never consorting with other 

 fowl. They hiss at one approaching as other geese do, 

 and their ."ruck, ruck," and "r-r-ronk, r-ronk," when 

 trilled off by an expert, is not altogether unmusical. They 

 travel within circumscribed limits, and are not like other 

 birds scattered and diffused over the .Continent. As far as 

 wo.know they have never been bred or domesticated in 

 this country or England. Their domestic life, the order 

 of the family, the food of the young, their growth and de- 

 velopment, are entirely unknown. No one has at any time, 

 we presume, studied their habits from birth to maturity, 

 and consequently that great field for studying character— 

 the home— is lost to us . 



We have had good opportunity for observing their habits 

 during their migrations at Cape Cod for more than 

 twenty years, and we learn that at other migratory points 

 their habits are identical. The M. B. Club has for many 

 years kept as decoys all the way from six to twenty of 

 these birds, but in no instance have they exhibited any con- 

 nubial desire. Some years since, the club presented half a 

 dozen of the birds to a wealthy bird fancier in this vicinity 

 for the purpose of breeding, but the scheme totally failed. 

 Another party has three fine specimens that are allowed by 

 day to roam about the house with other fowl, but they, in 

 common with all their fellows, are first shorn of the tip of 

 a wing to prevent their speedy departure. Nor have these 

 shown any reproductive proclivities. While in bondage, 

 they drink fresh water, but in a normal condition, if they 

 drink at all, it is of salt water. Their food is wholly vege 

 table, consisting of eel grass and other marine growths. 

 We have never seen them partake of fish, or any cf the 

 myriads of animal life that infest our shores. Their ex. 

 crementary deposits indicate entirely vegetable diet, and as 

 they never dive except when wounded and pursued, they 

 must feed where the water is less than two feet deep. Corn 

 alone constitutes the bill of fare of the decoys. From our 

 stand point on Cape Cod we should say, in ordinary sea- 

 sons, braut begin to arrive and depart early in March, and 

 they continue coming and going till the end Of April.' At 

 times there are immense numbers on the feeding ground. 

 They are too wise to set out upon a long voyage in the teeth 

 of a northeasterly storm, but let the wind haul to South- 

 west, and one will see those nearest shore gobble a 

 quantity of sand— "take in ballast," as the natives say- 

 lift up and swing round, often two or three times to get the 

 proper altitude, then strike out over the beach in an E. N. 

 E. direction, and with such precision as to provoke the re- 

 imark that each leader must carry a compass in the top of 

 his head to steer by. There is no day during the season 

 ; above named when there are not more or less brant at this 

 point, and with proper appliances and skillful management 

 large numbers of them may be slaughtered, but no sport is 

 more dubious than this brant shooting. The tides, wind, 

 ^weather, all have their influence, and the birds are often 

 jvery freakish and do not decoy well. The course they lay 

 ;]in departing is further on, somewhat deflected, so as to 

 jjbring them into the Bay of Fundy, up which they pass, lift- 

 ling over the narrow neck of land to Northumberland Straits, 

 |where again they find shoal water and good feeding ground. 



Here, and along the shore of Prince Edward's Island, they 

 "feed and batter" till the end of May or fore part of June, 

 when they push along still further North. Between Cape 

 Cod and Prince Edward's Island they rarely stop except 

 when compelled to do so by hard winds or a storm, nor 

 have they at any time ventured far inland or out to sea. 

 Here, however, with an accumulation of strength and adi- 

 pose matter, they are prepared for the long, tedious, and 

 possibly somewhat dangerous journev that is before them. 

 Leaving the Gulf of St. Lawrence they proceed along to 

 westward of the Island of Anticosti, and at 65° or 66° 

 west longitude, strike out boldly over the land in a north- 

 westerly direction to the Arctic Ocean. Navigators on 

 Hudson's Bay have not spoken of seeing them in such 

 numbers as to warrant the belief that they make any con- 

 siderable stop there. Their line of flight from the St. 

 Lawrence to the Arctic is not definitely known, and yet it is 

 certain they pass north between Boothia and Victoria 

 Land, and between Melville Island and North Devon. 

 Whether in the long journey they are guided by certain 

 isothermal lines, influenced by electric currents, or drawn 

 thither by the magnetic pole, which is represented as being 

 at about latitude 70° 10'— west longitude 96° 5'— Is not 

 known. That they do arrive in the viciuity of Melville 

 Island in vast numbers, and that they pass along Welling- 

 ton Channel and other Arctic waters to still more northern 

 feeding and breeding grounds ,is well authenticated. We 

 assume then that all the other swimming birds — the eiders 

 auks, gulls, swan, &c, travel and breed along the coast of 

 Labrador, Baffin's Bay and Smith's Sound, while the brant 

 do not. They take a widely different route and go much 

 further north than the great mass of other birds. What 

 we know, all we know, in fact, of the birds away up in 

 this inhospitible region is gathered from the fragmentary 

 narration of Arctic explorers, and from the birds them- 

 selves. That they do go North of 70°, or even 82° north 

 latitude, and go in large flocks, we Will further on under- 

 take to prove. We do not assume that all the brant go 

 north of 82°, but that nearly all that 'intend to reproduce 

 their young, do. Some from weakness or weariness, 

 caused by the long journey, or possibly from the pressure 

 of the egg for extrusion, or other causes, may drop out 

 of the flock and hence be seen in Summer south of 70° 

 north latitude. Again, some may linger with no inten- 

 tion of breeding, as do the other geese. Sir John Richard- 

 son says of geese (vol. 1, p. 251:) "There are a consider- 

 able number who do not breed, but keep in small bands 

 and are called barren geese. Of these we saw several 

 flocks." Among the earlier Arctic explorers the opinion 

 evidently prevailed that braut did not' go so far North to 

 breed. So late as 1848, Sir John Richardson writes: "In 

 Coronation Gulf are many islands. Swan, snow geese 

 brant geese, eiders * * * breed in immense numbers on 

 these islands," Further on he says that they (brant) breed on 

 Wollston Land. They were going north, and he presumed 

 they would stop there, but now recent explorers have de- 

 monstrated his error. Hall, on his first expedition, saw 

 brant at the mouth of the Jordan River, and others 'may 

 have been seen in out-of-the-way places. The surgeon of 

 the "Hecla" and "Griper," Alex. Fisher, on the 16th of 

 July, remarks: "A party of six went out for a ten day's 

 hunt. They saw a great many brant, but only succeeded 

 in killing a dozen." And further on, Latitude 70° 30'— 

 longitude 71° 15', on the third of September, 1820: "Saw 

 two flocks of brant geese." June 12, while at Hooper's 

 Island, (near Melville) he observes: "We saw several 

 ptarmigan and a great many of the geese so often men- 

 tioned in the course of our journey * * * f these 

 birds we managed to shoot four during our stay, and found 

 them to be brant geese. They weighed about four pounds 

 each." Parry, on his first voyage to Melville Island, June 

 12, 1820, says: "The birds seen by our people were 'many 

 brant geese and ptarmigan, several golden plover, one or 

 two boatswains, and abundance of snow buntings." They 

 were hurrying along north, just as they do at Cape Cod : 

 in fact, they are always in a hurry; always on the alert.' 

 We have never seen them sit down like other fowl head 

 under wing and sleep. s 



McClure, while at Prince of Wales Straits, wrote the fol- 

 lowing: "The king and common eider, the pm-tail ducks, 

 and the brant geese form their simple nests in spite of the 

 prowling fox." As he does not speak of seeing a brant's 

 nest, we are rather inclined to believe it was not there. 

 We doubt, with a single exception, if any one has ever 

 discovered or seen a brant's nest. McClintock, at Cape 

 Bird, remarks (p. 290): "I saw and shot a brant goose, 

 seated upon an accessible ledge, and made a prize of four 

 eggs." But apparently fearing his reader might be led to 

 believe it a common occurrence, appended the following: 

 "It seemed strange that the bird should have selected so 

 unusual a breeding place." Further on, at Boothia Felix, 

 latitude 69° 50', longitude 96° 10', (p. 280) he says: "On 

 the 8th of June the first ducks and brant geese were seen 

 flying Northward." At Bellot Straits (1858) he writes.- 

 "We cannot discover the nests of either ducks or geese." x 



Dr. Kane, on his first voyage, (1850) saw no brant till he 

 arrived in the vicinity of Wellington Channel. So early as 

 the 26th of August, the brant began to be seen on the re- 

 turn voyage. He says (p. 160): "If we add to these (the 

 other birds) the crowding tenants of the air, the brant 

 geese wiiich now came in great cunoid flocks from the 

 north by east." And again, (p. 174): "Our solitary 

 goose, (one shot by Murdaugh with a rifle on the wing) was 

 the Anser bernicla, crowds of which now began to fly over 

 the land, and in a cunoid stream to the east of south." 

 This "cunoid stream" rather puzzles us. If they fly in 

 that shape in the Arctic regien, it is different from what they 

 move in New England. They generally fly irregularly in a 

 line. That line is sometimes bent forward in the centre 

 so as nearly to represent a V, but never continues so for 

 any length of time. We should be inclined to believe the 

 birds described were Canada geese, were they not named 

 specifically. And, besides, we presume Anser canadensis 

 does not reach so high a latitude. Sir John Richardson 

 says (vol. 1, p. 320): "The Canada geese breed throughout 

 the woody districts, (of North America) but do not reach 

 the vicinity of the Arctic Sea." Again, writing from Fort 

 Confidence (vol 2, p. 105): "The Canada geese come in the 

 van (May 19) and remain breeding in the woody country." 

 In this northern journey, from the vicinity of Well- 

 ington Channel, the brant take a northeast course which 

 brings them to the north part of Smith's Sound, where 

 they were seen by Kane, Morton and others. We quote 

 from Morton's statement (Kane's expedition): "June 21 

 1854, a flock of brant geese were coming down the valley 

 of the lowland, and ducks were seen in crowds upon the 

 open water. When we saw the geese first they were ap- 

 parently coming from the eastward; they made a curve 

 out to seaward, then turning, flew far ahead over the plain 

 until they were lost to view, showing that their destination 

 was inland. The general line of flight of the flock was to 

 the northeast." This was near Cape "Constitution," and 

 about latitude 80° North. At Renssalaer, Kane says (p. 

 302-3): "The brant geese had not been seen before, since 

 entering Smith Straits. It is well, known to the' Polar 

 traveler as a migratory bird of the American Continent 

 Like the others of the same family it feeds upon vegeta- 

 ble matter, generally marine plants with the adherent mol- 

 luscous life. It is rarely or never seen in the interior and 

 from its habits may be regarded as singularly indicative of 

 open water. The flocks of these birds, easily distinguished 

 by their wedge-shaped line of flight, now crossed the water 

 obliquely and disappeared over the land to the north and 

 East.^ I have often shot these birds in Wellington Channel 

 in latitude 74° 50' nearly six degrees to the South. They 

 were then flying in the same direction." 



Dr. Hayes' sledge expedition reached Cape Lieber- lati- 

 tude 81° 35', April, 1861, and found the nests and breeding 

 places of many birds, but no brant. If further testimony were 

 needed that these birds breed north of and beyond anv 

 human footprints, we would give the following from the 

 last named author: "Long lines of cackling geese were 

 sailing far overhead winging their wav to some more re 

 mote point of Northness." (p. 382). Again, July 7 he 

 says: "I found a flock of brant geese, but could not dis- 

 cover their uests," (p. 411.) If they do breed along the 



