BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



129 



' Saugus ' (now Lynn), where he lived during most of the period (1629-1633) 

 that he spent in Massachusetts — gives similar testimony, for in a passage 

 relating to the " great gray Goofe, with a blacke necke, and a blacke and white 

 head " he asserts that " moft of thefe Geefe remaine with us from Michelmas to 

 Aprill ; the)' feede on the fea upon graffe in the Bayes at low water and gravell, 

 and in the woods of Acornes, .... If I f hould tell you how fome have killed 

 a hundred Geefe in a weeke, fiftie Duckes at a fliot, fortie Teales at another, it 

 may be counted impolTible, though nothing more certaine." ^ 



41. Olor columbianus (Ord). 

 Whistling Swan. 



Accidental visitor in autumn. 



I have a male Whistling Swan, in fully adult plumage, which was killed 

 in Weston, Massachusetts, on December 17, 1890, by Michael McCarthy 

 of Auburndale, who gave me the following account ^ of the circumstances 

 attending the capture : He was walking along the west bank of Charles 

 River near Norumbega Tower at about half-past six o'clock in the morning, 

 looking for ducks, when he saw seven large white birds within a yard or two of 

 the shore in a bay where the water was perhaps two feet deep. They were 

 apparently feeding on the bottom, thrusting their heads and long necks under 

 the water every few seconds. He succeeded in getting within about seventy- 

 five yards of them and fired, killing one, when the others rose at once and flew 

 out of sight, following the course of the river towards Waltham, two, which 

 probably were wounded, lagging behind the rest. All looked pure white, like 

 the one captured. The latter weighed seventeen pounds. The morning was 

 cloudy with an east wind which brought rain about noon. There was a little 

 ice in the middle of the river, but the water along the shores was perfectly 

 open. 



Charles River at the place where these Swans were seen is a broad, slug- 

 gish stream, expanding in a succession of bays and bordered on both banks by 

 nearly unbroken stretches of woods. 



Lest objection be made to giving the Whistling Swan a numbered place in 



' William Wood, New Englands Prospect, ed. 2, 1635, 26. Charles Dearie's ed., 1S65, 34. 

 2W. Brewster, Auk, VIII, 1891, 232. 



