LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTEL AMERICAN WILD FOWL 287 



Behavior. — Considering its size and weight, a swan rises from 

 the water with remarkable ease and celerity; it rims along the 

 surface for 15 or 20 feet, flapping its wings and beating the water 

 with its feet alternately, until it has gained sufficient headway to 

 launch into the air; like all heavy-bodied birds it must face the 

 wind in rising. When well awing it flies with considerable speed 

 and power, with the long nec]>i stretched out in front and the great 

 black feet extending beyond the tail; the wing beats are slow, but 

 powerful and efl'ective. It has been said to fly at a speed of 100 

 miles an hour; probably no such speed is attained, however, except 

 when flying before a heavy wind; it undoubtedly flies faster than 

 it appears to on account of its great size, and it certainly flies 

 faster than any of the ducks and geese. Y\nien traveling long dis- 

 tances swans fly in V-shaped wedges, in the same manner as geese 

 and for the same reason; the resistance of the air is less, as each 

 bird flies in the widening wake of its predecessor; the leader, of 

 course, has the hardest work to do, as he "breaks the trail," but 

 he is relieved at intervals and drops back into the flock to rest. 

 On shorter flights they fly in long curving lines or in irregular 

 flocks. They usually fly rather high, and when traveling are often 

 way up above the clouds. Audubon (1840) quotes Doctor Sharp- 

 less, as follows : 



In flying, these birds make a strange appearance ; tlieir long necks pro- 

 trude and present, at a distance, mere lines witli black points, and occupy 

 more than one-half their whole length, their heavy bodies and triangular 

 wings seeming but mere appendages to the prolonged pohit in front. 



When tlius in motion, their v/ings pass through so few degrees of the circle 

 that, unless seen horizontally, they appear almost quiescent, being widely dif- 

 ferent from the heavy semicircular sweep of the goose. The swan, when migrat- 

 ing, with a moderate wind in his favor, and mounted high in the air, certainly 

 travels at the rate of 100 miles or more an hour. I have often timed the flight 

 of the goose, and found one mile a minute a common rapidity, and when the 

 two birds, in a change of feeding ground, have been flying near each other, 

 which I have often seen, the swan invariably passed with nearly double the 

 velocity. 



Mr. Cameron, in his notes, refers to the powers of flight of swans, 

 as follows: 



Small parties of the swans on the water spread their long wings at regular 

 intervals and took lengthy flights, presumably to keep themselves in practice 

 for their forthcoming journey. The control which suck large birds (weighing 

 from 17 to 20 pounds) possess over their flight on a perfectly calm day is to 

 me quite marvelous, and must be seen to be appreciated. A compact flock of 

 from 4 to 6 swift-flying swans will circle the whole basin of the lake several 

 times, and then, as if tied together, alight in the closest proximity to each 

 other, yet never collide. They will pitch upon the water in the most graceful 

 manner imaginable, without bringing their long legs forward, or making any 

 splash. At exceptional times, however, the swans do make a loud splash when 

 they alight. 



100449—25 20 



