BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 195 



History. 



The Swans, which once in great numbers frequented the 

 rivers and estuaries along the Atlantic coast, from New Eng- 

 land to Georgia, probably were mainly of this species, for it 

 lives in preference nearer the sea than does the Trumpeter, 

 which breeds mainly near the fresh marshes and about the lakes 

 of the interior, while the Whistling Swan nests upon the shores 

 and islands of the Arctic Ocean. Perhaps this species bred 

 in early times on the northern coasts of Labrador or on Baf- 

 fin's land and other lands to the northward, and the "greate 

 store of swans" which Morton and other writers speak of as 

 frequenting New England may have been recruited partly 

 from this source; but by the middle of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury man's persecution had either killed them off or driven 

 them away, so that they had become rare in New England. 

 Up to that time, however, flocks of this species were seen 

 occasionally on the coast of Massachusetts, and though they 

 are now so rarely seen as to be ranked as accidental or casual 

 visitors, a few still pass over the State or along our coasts. 

 They are almost never taken here now, unless driven by 

 severe storms to alight. 



Fleming (1906) states that this species is rare now in 

 Ontario, Can., and probably only accidental. He has seen 

 only two dead birds and two specimens in the collection at 

 Trinity University which were probably taken in Ontario.^ 



In the early days Swans wintered much farther north 

 than they do now. They were seen in winter about Lake 

 Ontario, as well as on the New England coast. Mr. J. F. 

 Lebaron, a well-known sportsman, stated (1879) that Swans 

 were seen occasionally at Ipswich in former years. Maynard 

 records them as rare in winter. ^ They sometimes w^intered 

 on the Island of Nantucket. Now they rarely are seen in 

 the northern States in winter. They are decreasing in the 

 Chesapeake, but are increasing in Currituck Sound, N. C. 

 This increase of the Swans in southern waters has given rise 



1 Fleming, James H.: Auk, 1906, p. 446. 



- Maynard, C. J.: The Naturalist's duide, with a complete catalogue of the birds of eastern 

 Massachusetts, 1870, p. 146. 



