292 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



fogs which prevail along the coast are no doubt the worst enemies these 

 birds have, for then if the hunter is careful he can approach within easy 

 range before they attempt to escape. 



In stormy weather they are very restless and are continually flying from 

 place to place as if hunting for a quiet spot, where they may rest in peace 

 till the storm passes. In this continuous change of positions they often come 

 too near the shore, and many are killed by the hunters who lay hidden, 

 awaiting their approach. I once saw five of these large birds killed at a 

 single discharge of a heavy double gun. 



The tragic end of a belated cripple on a Montana lake is thus 

 described in Mr. Cameron's notes : 



In the fall of 1908, a member of a large flock of whistling swans, which 

 settled upon Marshy Lake, was slightly wounded in the wing by a bullet 

 (or, as is more probable, had a flight feather cut away by it) and could not 

 leave with its frightened companions. Mr. Sullivan observed the swan about 

 a dozen times when driving cattle to another Milner ranch near Shonkiu, and 

 when returning by the same route. He informed me that after the lake 

 became frozen over, the swan, which was an adult in pure white plumage, 

 by constantly swimming in a circle, kept open a small pond, about 25 feet 

 wide. Until December 1 he regularly saw the swan upon this pond, which 

 it was able to maintain open even when the ice was 3 inches thick upon the 

 rest of the lake. The swan frequently dived, but was, of course, always 

 obliged to come up in the same place on account of the ice ; and Mr. Sullivan 

 supposed that the poor bird eked out a scanty subsistence by means of the 

 weeds or other food which it found at the bottom of the lake. The fate of 

 this swan, though not absolutely known, can easily be surmised. Numerous 

 coyotes, which crossed upon the ice, persistently menaced, and would have 

 devoured the unfortunate bird but for its self-made asylum; hence, with the 

 advent of colder weather, and consequent freezing up of the water, it would 

 have undoubtedly become their prey. The above suggests a wintry scene which 

 would be a fitting subject for an artists's brush ; the famished prisoner swim- 

 ming around the dark refuge pool, the scarcely less hungry jailers patrolling 

 the ice edge and licking their expectant lips, the white world, and the onward 

 creeping ice, grim with inexorable fate. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Nearctic region, mainly north of the Arctic 

 Circle, East to Baffin Land. South to Nottingham and Southamp- 

 ton Islands, the barren grounds of northern Canada, the Alaska 

 Peninsula (Becharof Lake, Chulitna River and Morzhovia Bay), 

 and St. Lawrence Island in Bering Sea. Northward in Alaska to 

 the Arctic coast (Cape Prince of Wales and probably Point Barrow). 

 North on the Arctic islands to about 74°, the North Georgia Islands, 

 and Victoria Land (Cambridge Bay). 



Winter range. — Mainly on the seacoasts of United States, On the 

 Atlantic coast, most abundantly from Maryland (Chesapeake Bay) 

 to North Carolina (Currituck Sound) ; less commonly north to New 

 Jersey; rarely north to Long Island (Shinnecock) and Massachu- 

 setts (Nantucket). Rarely south to Florida and the Gulf coasts of 



