LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 289 



and directed toward the head of Norton Sound. As many as 500 may form 

 a single line, flying silently just over the shore line at a height of less than 

 600 feet. I always suspected that these birds flew to the northward as far as 

 the Ulukuk Portage, in about 65° 30' north latitude, so as to get to the Yukon 

 River at Nulato, about 120 miles in the interior of the Territory, and con- 

 tinue their flight up the Yukon River, which would in its course let these 

 birds more easily cross the Rocky Mountain ridge with least effort. This is sup- 

 posed by the fact that I never saw swans, at any season of the year, migrating 

 to the southward. 



From this statement and similar observations by Dall and Nelson, 

 one would infer that the swans which breed in northern Alaska cross 

 the Kocky Mountains to join the main migration route of the species, 

 which is southward through the interior of Canada; perhaps the 

 birds which breed in southern Alaska and in Canada west of the 

 Rockies migrate down the coast to their winter homes on the Pacific 

 coast. Swans are very abundant in the interior of Canada and the 

 northern States in the fall migration. Large numbers vvere formerly 

 killed by the fur traders for their skins which were dealt in as regular 

 articles of commerce. The Hudson's Bay Co. sold 17,671 swan skins 

 between the years 1853 to 1877 ; the number steadily decreased, how- 

 ever, from 1,312 in 1854 to 122 in 1877, and during the next two 

 or three years the traffic practically ceased. 



From the vicinity of the Great Lakes the heaviest flight seems to 

 take a southeastward direction to the Atlantic coast, but there is 

 also a southward flight to the Gulf of Mexico and probably a limited 

 southwestward flight to the Pacific coast. 



A striking example of the disasters which may befall even one 

 of our largest and strongest species of wild fowl is shown in the 

 destruction of swans in the Niagara swan trap. In one instance 

 over 100 of these great birds met their death; being caught in the 

 rapids they were swept over the falls; many were killed by the fall, 

 others were killed or maimed hj the rough treatment they received 

 in the whirlpools and rapids, where they were hurled against the 

 rocks or crushed in the ice; a few probably escaped by flying back 

 over the falls, but most of them were unable to fly at all on account 

 of their injuries or were too exhausted to rise high enough to clear 

 the falls. But eventually many of them would have escaped if they 

 had not been attacked by a crowd of men and boys, who shot, beat, 

 and clubbed the poor struggling birds until not a living bird re- 

 mained. For full accounts of two such catastrophes I Avould refer 

 the reader to Mr. J. H. Fleming's (1908 and 1912) interesting papers 

 on the subject. 



Game. — As game birds, swans have never held a promiaent place. 

 They are not abundant anywhere except in a few favored spots, 

 as migrants or winter sojourners. They have always been so wary 

 and shy that attempts to shoot them in any considerable number.^ 



