66 
BIENNAL REPORT 
latter and the Blue Goose the least common. The standing of the Blue Goose as 
a distinct species was for a long time in doubt, it being regarded by many as the 
young of the Snow Goose, but of late years it has received full recognition as 
a separate species. 
The true Brant (Branta bernicla glaucogastra) has frequently been ascribed 
to Minnesota but if it ever occurred at all it must have been as a rare straggler. 
It is a bird of the Atlantic sea coast where it “was formerly one of the most 
abundant of all the sea-fowl.” There are no Minnesota specimens known and 
when in past years the markets of Minneapolis were full of geese in the fall the 
writer was never able to discover a single individual of this kind, though constant 
search was made. It is probable that the reports were due to the hunters calling 
the Snow and White-fronted Geese by the name of “Brant.” 
Geese to a greater extent than ducks are upland feeders and graze upon grass 
and other green herbage, eating also acorns, various kinds of berries, corn, and 
grain when they can be had. When abundant they may do considerable damage 
to grain fields in the spring, when they alight to rest and feed during migration. 
As an indication that there are still a good many geese in existence, a complaint 
of this kind reached Mr. Carlos Avery from farmers in the vicinity of Big Stone 
Lake as late as the spring of 1918. When feeding in shallow lakes and sloughs, 
geese behave like the surface-feeding ducks, searching the bottom by means of their 
long necks and tipping up their bodies like a Mallard or Teal. At such times 
they eat all sorts of aquatic creatures and pull up the same tubers, root-stalks and 
plants as are consumed by the ducks. 
Swans. 
There is now only one kind of Swan found in Minnesota, the Whistling Swan, 
which passes across the state in its migrations and now and then alights to rest 
and feed. It breeds in Alaska and on the islands of the Arctic Ocean and winters 
on the sounds and bays of the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It was formerly 
very abundant and was killed in large numbers in the far north and elsewhere 
for the “swan’s-down” as well as for its flesh. Spring and fall, flocks of consider¬ 
able size may still be seen on our larger lakes and on the Mississippi River and 
could they be left unmolested these magnificent and graceful birds would no doubt 
alight even more frequently and tarry longer in such places, a source of pleasure 
and objects of admiration for many observers. 
A second species, the Trumpeter Swan, was in early days a common 
summer resident in this region and as lam, at least, as 1883 the last survivors of 
the Minnesota contingent still nested in the state. In the spring of that year a pair 
built their nest not far from the cabin of Tom Miller which was on “Millers 
Point,” Heron Lake, where the Heron Lake Gun Club is now located. A Mr. Wm. 
Peters, who settled on the south shore of Heron Lake in the iate fifties, has related 
to the writer stories of how common this swan was at that place in those early 
days and told of men, in the employ of eastern parties, who came to the lake in the 
summertime, and caught the cygnets by rounding them up in the middle of the 
lake before they were able to fly. 
The Trumpeter was the only species of swan that ever bred in the northern 
United States and southern Canada, the Whistler, as now, always seeking the far 
