66 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



flag, rushes, and cat-tails lined the shore and here myriads 

 of minnows and pollywogs played or hid tinder sunken, 

 logs or clumps of broken reeds. The nearest farms were 

 two or three miles away, and so it is small wonder that 

 some of the bolder of the water fowl hesitated to desert 

 so ideal a home for unexplored regions beyond. 



Suddenly the boy was attracted by a loud clear trumpet 

 call like the blast of a French horn, and almost at the 

 same time a voice was heard crying ^^swans.'' Soon he 

 saw a dim line approaching which gradually broke into 

 twenty large birds with long necks stretched far ahead 

 and legs sticking back beyond the tail. Even tho 

 they were high in the air, they flashed white as snow in 

 the sunlight. The boy did not have long to watch so novel 

 a sight, for the giant birds flapped their wings with a 

 steady beat that carried them many miles an hour. It 

 was not many days until the rumor went around the neigh- 

 borhood that a flock of twenty swans was hanging about 

 Holmes Lake. Every hunter in the neighborhood nibbed 

 up his old gun, and at the first opportunity tramped many 

 a weary mile in hopes of gaining the fame of killing a 

 swan. But these birds were no novices. Years of experi- 

 ence had taught them wisdom, and when com planting time 

 came and the hunters had to turn farmer no hunter could 

 boast of a single trophy. 



As the days passed, one pair after another of these 

 swans grew restless and, when they could not get the flock 

 to go, quietly slipped away into the northern sky. At 

 last only two pairs were left, but they refused to leave so 

 delightful a feeding ground. 



At some distance from the shore was a small island, 

 with just a few scrubby bushes growing on its banks. After 



