THE BRANT OF PRINCE PATRICK ISLAND 
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES 
BY CHARLES O. HANDLEY, JR. 
'T'HE systematic relationships of the small, black-headed geese of the gems 
h!lve lon S be ™ * “»ter of lively controversy. Opinion has variet 
as to whether they belonged to one species or two. Birds wintering in Europe 
o» believed to belong to a single species, BraMa bcrnida (Linnaeus) and t„„ 
mces of this species are considered valid-a dark-bellied one, wl breed! 
in western Siberia and on islands north of the European mainland, and a 1 - 1,1 
bdhed one*™, (0. F. Mailer), breeding in the eastern American arctic and » 
islands northwest of Europe (Witherby a ah, 1939: 215). Hrola winters e, 
ensively the New World also, especially along the Atlantic c« T Z 
tinctness of a third form, nigrieam. breeding in e,“s,er„ Sibe i a^ e w 
American arctic, has never been denied. With it the problem has been „ m 
degme of difference. Is it related B. bernieU as a subspecm, or a Tape c e s 
G. N. Lawrence descnbed it.sa full species. Fora long time it was r e»arde ~ 
such, but ornithologists who visited the western American arctic continue* ! 
report the presence of both mgricam and hrola tliere in summer. Series composed 
breeding ami miller specimens from various parts of North America cod, I he 
arranged such a way as to show almost complete intergmdation betweet 1 
o forms. This mtergrada,ion, which allegedly could -be traced oveTthe h 
cumpolar circle in northern Europe and Asia” (Taverner 199 fi- 11 
North American E09«. ° f * he A -°' U - Ch '^ »< 
be^ed M :: zt tt.* 
z: ?“ r ztz t r 
mee in tL is , 1 “ gh ‘ a " d ^ark-bellied birds seem 
breeding Ga v „ JdTtVT' “* Z* ****** *»«•• i"*r- 
nig, leal and fc-Znthe V a t"*”' colo " ies <* M. 
Hanson, Scott and Queneau (1940 99 S ^ ^ S ° Uth ° f Queen Maud Gulf ’ 
River but aoDaren 1 , } aIS0 f ° Und b ° th these io ™ at Perry 
of Bird and Bird (1936 ^60^2 ^'Sw 
Z^sSg*** ran - 0f ^ and"the""^ 
icn St;; ?*** t t ' n ae — 
I sing laj that no one has encountered mixed 
128 
PRINCE PATRICK ISLAND BRANT 
129 
Charles 0. 
Handley, Jr. 
airs in that vast area; and (b) that there are so few true intermediates in mu¬ 
seum collections. By ‘true’ intermediates I mean breeding specimens neither dark 
enough below for nigricans nor light enough below for hrola, and collected in the 
area °of overlap. Numerous specimens have been preserved which are interme¬ 
diate in a very broad sense. Most B. b. bernicla of the Old World are neither 
dark enough below for nigricans nor light enough below for hrola, yet obviously 
those far removed birds are not intermediates between nigricans and hrola in a 
frenetic sense. Moffitt (1932: 308) says: “I know of no single specimen ever hav¬ 
ing been procured in America showing indications of interbreeding.” 
In the course of investigations on Prince Patrick Island, Northwest Terri¬ 
tories in 1949, I found both nigricans and hrola common as nesting birds. 
Nigricans was the more numerous. The two forms arrived almost simulta¬ 
neously, giving no hint of any difference in migration routes. This was not sur¬ 
prising, perhaps, in view of the lateness of the arrival date. The first birds I 
saw appeared to be a pair. They came in on 12 June, a dreary, foggy day. They 
circled back and forth low over the snow-covered river delta, the coastal hills, 
and unbroken ice of the bays, searching for open water or a bare spot oUand 
on which to alight. I could not identify them except as brant. On the 15th I 
saw four flocks. One flock, composed of four nigricans, grazed on a small spot 
of lush grass and moss tundra which had melted clear of snow. They were re¬ 
luctant to fly as I approached and returned to the same spot after I had moved 
away. Other flocks, proclaiming their arrival with a musical honking and croak¬ 
ing, were migrating up icebound Crozier Channel. A flock of eleven came in low 
over the ice and lit at a meltwater pool on the beach near my camping spot. 
They rested, drank, bathed, preened, chased each other around with extended 
necks as though courting, gabbled continuously, and occasionally uttered soft 
honking notes. Most of these birds appeared to be nigricans, but two were 
quite light and may have been hrola, although I could not be sure. I he first 
undoubted hrola I observed on 17 June. That day I collected a pair as they 
grazed on a muskeg island which had just emerged from the snow r of a river 
delta. On subsequent days brant frequently visited this same area, but the two 
forms almost always kept separate from each other. 
As soon as the south and west slopes began to clear of snow, the brant 
commenced nesting. The tundra was more than eighty percent snow covered, 
and snow r shoes were still necessary for travel, when on 22 June, on the gentle, 
well vegetated lower slopes of a mountain three miles inland, I located my first 
nests. These slopes were among the first vegetated areas to dry out sufficiently 
to allow nesting. I observed about a dozen pairs of brant scattered over several 
square miles, and found three nests. One of the nests contained four eggs, so it 
must have been started soon after 12 June. In addition to the nesting pairs, I 
saw several flocks of four to twenty individuals on the nesting area. These 
birds were so intent on grazing that I could not help believing that they had 
