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G 5 T 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 23, 1905 
in a herd and she said, “How pretty they did 
look while they were jumping a rail fence near 
our house.” She also spoke of seeing two, three 
or even more of them together at several dif¬ 
ferent times. So it seems now that when the 
deer season comes in in 1911 the Connecticut 
gunners may look for glorious sport. 
■ A L. L. 
Game Birds in Minnesota. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Oct. 19 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: As the summer home and nest¬ 
ing ground for waterfowl, Minnesota leads. 
Thousands of lakes, sloughs and marshes pro¬ 
duce annually innumerable teal, mallards and 
woodduck. Since spring shooting has been 
stopped, the local crop of ducks has materially 
increased and Minnesota marshes attract sports¬ 
men from all parts of the country. Drainage 
and increased population will inevitably encroach 
more and more upon the breeding grounds of 
waterfowl, but not in this State to the extent 
of extermination, provided other States will 
also stop the shooting of these birds in the mat¬ 
ing season and control the business of the de¬ 
structive market gunner. 
Federal regulation of the time for shooting 
migratory waterfowl, owing to tardy recogni¬ 
tion by a number of States of this essential 
precaution, may be the ultimate solution. 
Game protection and preservation is an all 
important issue that is not to be passed by 
lightly, for a time will come when our game 
will be very scarce. We should guard against 
this misshap. Generations to come will appre¬ 
ciate our effort. Some of our best game birds 
are going the way of the buffalo, and if strict 
measures are not put into effect, nothing can 
stop the inroads. 
Before the advent of civilization and the 
transformation of the Minnesota prairies into 
fields of grain, this State offered ideal condi¬ 
tions for that finest of all game birds, the 
prairie grouse, but those conditions are gone, 
never to return. Future generations may nevei 
hear the booming of the prairie chickens in 
courting season. The prairie chicken still af¬ 
fords some excellent shooting in certain re¬ 
stricted sections and may be retained for many 
years to come in limited numbers, but it can 
never be restored to the thickly settled and 
highly cultivated portion of the State. Its 
place, however, may in a measure be taken by 
the cheery little bobwhite if the farmers, whose 
best friend he is, come to realize his value to 
them as an aid to crop production and furnish 
the little food and shelter required to carry him 
through the winter months. The ruffed grouse 
will always be more or less plentiful under 
favorable climatic conditions in the wilder 
wooded portions of the State, and we yet have 
considerable numbers of the sharp-tailed grouse 
and the spruce hen. R. P. Lincoln. 
Terrapin Protection. 
The game commission of Louisiana has in 
mind the establishment on Queen Bess Island, 
near the mouth of the Mississippi River, a 
retreat for the diamond-back terrapin. This 
species is almost extinct here. They are worth 
$30 a dozen and sometimes more. Millions of 
these terrapins will be raised on the island if 
the plans of the commission can be carried out. 
The Brant of the Pacific Coast. 
“Kal-ah brant—many in bay,” Co-sho yelled 
as his canim passed ours. We were near the 
flats at the mouth of the Sooke. It was low 
tide and the shellfish-covered flats were littered 
with the wildfowl of this region. We grounded 
our canoe and searched the mud banks with the 
telescope. About five hundred yards from us a 
band of large dark-colored birds stood. Through 
the powerful telescope I could see the black 
heads and white collars, the brownish backs and 
wings and the white rumps of the birds. They 
were the Western variety of the brant (Branta 
nigricans.) 
“You see me get him,” said the Siawash. His 
canoe was covered with a frame of bent cedar 
boughs, these in turn covered with the green 
A FINE SPECIMEN. 
branches of the fir and some cedar also. The 
frame was wide enough at the bottom to ex¬ 
tend out over the sides of his canoe, so that 
his paddle was concealed by the overhanging 
branches. Forward he started with the incom¬ 
ing tide. Not a ripple showed among the few 
branches that trailed in the water. When the 
big green mound had slowly floated to within 
three hundred yards of the flock I saw some 
of the brant cease graveling and stare intently 
at the natural looking now motionless bush. 
Again the birds commenced to pick up the tiny 
particles of sand and gravel and again the In¬ 
dian pushed his canoe into the tide stream. He 
lodged it against a bank fully another hundred 
yards nearer. Now many of the brant were 
staring at the green heap and only the younger 
birds continued taking the necessary gravel. 
The digestive apparatus must have this at least 
every other day. 
Again the canoe crept forward. Now a clear 
cackling cry, “Crup-car-rr-up,” ran through the 
flock. Several of the adult birds walked slowly 
up the flats staring with their bright black eyes 
at the suspicious object. The canoe was m 
within 125 yards of the flock. “Car-up, c 
up” now a cry of alarm came from the att 
tive mass. Up they leaped with strong sv 
motion, awing as swiftly as ever I saw fl< ] 
take flight. This was the moment the Siaw.l 
had been waiting for, when all the wings w 
spread. “Bang, bang,” sang the gun as the ja: 
in-the-box popped up. The twenty-one bucks 1 
that chambered so well in each shell scatte 1 
over so wide an angle that only three of 
brant were wounded so badly that they f 
Two he paddled for and picked up immediate 
One had struggled out into the deep water ;i 
was diving as cleverly as a grebe. Four tir 
the Indian fired at the black head ere he kill 
the poor thing, and I got about a hundred 1 
focus on the reflecting camera as the fill 
passed over. 
Fritz, my assistant, killed one as they pasi 
over. He also used very heavy shot, as uni 
these birds are well within range they will 1 
fall with a regular peppering of number <; 
We pictured the bird when we took it ashc 
Note the short strong black bill with which 
tears off or up its aquatic vegetable food, asi 
this latitude it lives solely on sea grasses; 
a single atom of shellfish have we found in r 
brant we have dissected. The perfect wl ■ 
collar almost encircles the black neck, fail; 
to meet completely on the top. The back, bre, 
and wings shade from black to sooty brov 
the rump is white with black feathers int 
mingled. These birds come, into the inlets it 
harbors of Vancouver Island late in Decern 
and remain there until March; a few may 1 
found on the best feeding grounds as late 
April. The great mass of the brant work sloq 
north along the coast of British Colum; 
and are found on the Yukon in May. Tb 
arrive at the first breeding grounds : 
Point Barrow early in June. Many of the br 
that nest along the mouth of the Mackem 
River pass across Alaska. This, the comm 
brant of the Pacific coast, breeds along 1 
shores of Bank’s Land, arriving there earlyi 
June, while the Eastern brant goose (Bra< 
bernicla) breeds along the coasts of Green’al 
arriving there even earlier than our black bnt 
Now, as these birds both fly toward a North 1 
breeding ground, it may be that a few of b'l 
varieties overlap and fly southward with < 
great host of migrating brant down the Atlai 
and the Pacific. Thus we may have a r> 
white-bellied brant on the Pacific, but I h 
not seen any nor have I met a man that B 
The black brant seems peculiar to the Pac 
coast. 
I note, as my desk window faced a flock 
these birds daily for months, that the brant h 1 
no regular flight, nor have they a leader, 1 
do they use at all times the regular wedge f' 
mation. They are a simple foolish bird, sitti; 
if there are no ducks near them to flush f> 
and scare them, staring in wonder at the > 
proaching canoe. Up, up stretch the long ne;5 
A single swift motion of the big wings If 
them bodily into the air and off they fly * 
noiselessly as any big bird I have met. A fl 1 
of decoys, a flock of feeding ducks, a nunr 
of black floating objects—all call them down' 
the water. They are always looking to 
where other birds are eating the luscious cel" 
in the brackish waters. They can only ge 1 
