Whistling Swan

March 22nd, 1884. Saw some big White Birds away up in the sky going North.

This record from an old notebook tells the date I first saw native Swans. Whether they were Geese or Swans was doubtful for many years afterward. Later I saw (from Shinnecock Beach in October) seven white elongated dots so high that perceiving them was pure good luck. Memory clicked — the birds of 1884 were Swans! They were formerly common along the Eastern Shore. During migration they take the lofty air lanes and are seldom seen altho under protection they are increasing. A recent census showed many thousands wintering in Chesapeake and Carolina waters. While naturally wary, they soon learn boundaries of sanctuaries and become comparatively tame.

The neck is carried straight and dipt unhurriedly in shallow water to the bottom when feeding. For such heavy birds, their wing movement is rapid, especially when getting underway, and feet are used to assist the take off.

Their flight is swifter than the Canada Geese with whom they frequently associate.

Bent compares the call to the syllables — wou hare ou! Elliot to a flageolet-like note and asserts he heard on Currituck Sound the "Swan song" of a mortally wounded bird. Scaling slowly down on set wings, the death-song continued until it reached the water nearly half a mile away. This song was plaintive and musical like the soft running of an octave and entirely unlike any Swan notes he had ever heard.

Birds alighting in the Niagara River are frequently carried over the Falls. Some survive only to be clubbed to death by civilized savages on the shore. Indulgence in this pastime is lessening — if not fatally hurt, they are cared for and released when recovered. Slowly, with many stumblings, man climbs upward!!