October, 1919 
FOREST AND STREAM 
529 
Brant Goose (Branta bernicla) 
Blue Goose {Chen Coerulescens) 
Hutchins Goose {Branta hutchinsii) 
of these birds in years gone by is almost 
beyond the imagination of the present- 
day hunter. In the Mississippi Valley, 
on the broad prairies of the west and 
in California, fields were whitened by 
these fowl as by a sudden fall of snow. 
In the Sacramento and San Joaquin Val- 
leys, in Oregon, the Dakotas, in Texas 
and elsewhere, great clouds of these 
birds, during the migrations, descended 
upon the grain fields. The farmers went 
forth, gun in hand, to protect their crops 
from total destruction; countless thous- 
ands of the fowl were killed annually, 
and, a glut upon the market, thousands 
of them wasted. Today they come in 
ever decreasing numbers, but they are 
still plentiful on the Pacific Coast, in 
the Mississippi Valley and in parts of 
Texas. 
The snow geese are often seen associ- 
ating with the Canada geese, the white- 
fronted, and other geese. All these va- 
rieties are sometimes shot from the same 
blind on the stubble fields during the 
same day. Often a mixed flock of live 
decoys of the different species are used 
where all the birds are plentful. The 
snow geese are hunted in the same man- 
ner as the other geese. They are known 
as white brant, wavey, and have other 
local names indigenous to the locality. 
Ross snow goose is identical in plum- 
age with the other snow geese and is 
about the same size as the greater bird. 
It is not uncommon in some sections 
along the Pacific Coast, but is never seen 
along the Atlantic. Its habits are very 
like the other snow geese, with which 
it associates. The difference is inter- 
esting to the naturalist, but of little im- 
portance to the sportsman, since all the 
snow geese are alike in appearance, are 
shot in the same manner and over the 
same decoys. 
The Brant 
T here are two varieties of Amer- 
ican brant or brant-geese; the com- 
mon brant and the black brant. 
The common brant is found throughout 
Eastern North America. Although it is 
met with in the interior, it prefers salt 
water to fresh and is a common fowl on 
the brackish bays of the Atlantic Coast. 
Head, neck, breast, back at base of neck, 
and tail black; small patch of white on 
either side of neck near head ; upper 
parts grayish brown; under parts gray- 
ish white, streaked with brown on sides; 
white about and under tail; bill, legs 
and feet black. Length about twenty- 
six inches. 
The black brant is the western rep- 
resentative of the preceding species and 
is very rarely seen on the Atlantic Coast. 
It is about the same size as the common 
brant, but easily distinguishable from 
the latter bird by its much darker plum- 
age. Head, neck, breast, abdomen and 
tail black ; white collar around upper 
neck interrupted at rear; wings and up- 
per parts dark brown; white about and 
under tail; bill, legs and feet black. 
The black brant are still plentiful on 
the Pacific Coast. California hunters 
formerly made immense bags of these 
birds, but over shooting has been fol- 
lowed by the usual result, and in no 
locality today are the fowl so abundant 
as in former years. 
The common brant is familiar to 
sportsmen who have shot on the Long 
Island bays, Barnegat Bay, Currituck 
Sound and other waters along the Atlan- 
tic Coast. Here, although not nearly 
so plentiful as in former years, they 
still come in goodly numbers during the 
spring and fall migrations. 
The brant arrive along the North At- 
lantic Coast in October and continue to 
move southward during the remainder 
of the fall and early winter. They pass 
rapidly by the shores of Canada and our 
most northern states, but often make 
long stops on the bays and sounds of 
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 563) 
White-fronted geese swimming. They are often called speckle-bellies, gray brant and have a number of other local names 
