Nelson on the Black Brant. 
r 37 
koquine River to the Yukon delta, and in descending the various 
mouths of the Yukon they invariably keep in the centre of the 
channel and fly low, generally within four or five yards of the ice 
which covers the river at the time. I can account for this dislike 
for flying over slight obstacles only by the supposition that by 
frequenting the sea coast and salt-marshes the birds have acquired 
a taste for keeping low even though at the expense of travelling 
longer distances. The same habit is shown in many Sea Ducks 
which have the custom of coasting low points rather than cross 
them . 
Though I have made inquiry among the natives and a number 
of white men who have been as far along the coast as Point 
Barrow I have been unable to definitely locate the point of their 
greatest abundance in summer. In autumn very few Brant are 
seen here during their return to the south. Dali records a speci- 
men killed at Unalaklik the 28th of September, 1867 — the latest 
date I have learned of its presence in Norton Sound in autumn. 
They generally pass south in September, between the 15th and 
the above date. 
The fact of the much greater abundance of Brant here in spring 
is easily accounted for when we consider that at this season the 
country is but just becoming free of snow arfd, consequently, the 
migrants must advance slowly and cautiously as the country be- 
comes habitable for them : in fall, on the contrary, the Brant, 
like the other waterfowl, remain on their breeding grounds until 
the sharp frosts in September bid them depart, when they pass 
down the coast, through Behring’s Straits, and then straight 
across the sea, past the eastern Aleutian Islands into the Pacific 
Ocean, thus leaving the shores of Norton Sound out of their road, 
or only to be visited by a few stragglers. Through Dali * we 
learn that the Black Brant passes Fort Yukon in spring, though it 
is not seen there in fall. He also records it from the vicinity of 
Nulato in spring, probably as stragglers from either up or down 
the Yukon. 
In the above-cited paper it is also stated, that “ this Goose is 
always lean, tough, and of disagreeable flavor,” and that “ it is 
also very shy,” all of which requires confirmation, since my own 
experience, extending over three years, during each spring of 
which I have had abundant opportunity to try them in the field 
* Dali and Bannister, Trans. Chicago Acad. Sci., I, 1869, p. 295. 
