WHISTLING SWAN 261 



noisy splashing as they threw themselves heavily and rather cliinisily first on 

 one side and then on the other. . . . One of the adults (known for such by his 

 clear white head) made a particularly brave show in drying himself, stretching 

 up to his full height, and shaking his wings and tail in a most vigorous manner. 

 In calling . . . they hold the head straight up, and then at the moment 

 of utterance raise it a little higher still with a sudden jerk. Their loud calls 

 sound human. 



The Whistling Swan always feeds in comparatively shallow water, 

 using its long neck to tear loose the various aquatic grasses and roots 

 of which it is fond. Along the Columbia River swans are said to feed 

 on the wapato or swamp potato {Sagittaria latifolia and S. arifolia) 

 (McAtee, 1914, p. 5). Bendire {in Belding, MS) found the Whistling 

 Swan feeding on bulbous roots on the shores of Malheur Lake, Oregon. 

 The stomach of one killed at the same place contained twenty small 

 shells. Belding (MS) says that in the winter of 1894-95 flocks of 

 forty or fift}'^ fed in grain fields near Gridley, Butte County, where 

 they proved very destructive. One shot had a rank taste, not very 

 different from geese which have been living on growing wheat or grass. 



Old birds are tough and not particularly attractive for the table, 

 but the young are considered a delicacy. In spite of the fact that 

 they are difficult to shoot, heavy loads and large shot being required 

 to kill them, numbers of swans were sold on the markets, before they 

 were protected by law. During the season of 1895-96 there were sold 

 on the markets of San Francisco and Los Angeles 518 swans, most of 

 them probably of this species (Calif. Fish Comm., 1896, p. 42). Five 

 individuals received at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in 1912 

 were carefully weighed and gave the following results: Two females 

 each, 121/2 pounds; three males, 14, 15, and 3 6 pounds, respectively. 

 A full-grown juvenile bird received in 1916 weighed 8I/5 pounds. 



It is the height of the ambition of most hunters to kill a wild swan. 

 Increased desirability seems to accompany the bigness of the quarry 

 no matter what the actual worth of the game as food may be. Even 

 admitting that the swan comes under the strict definition of a game 

 bird, yet its increasing rarity and its beauty rightly places it among 

 those species which are now protected throughout the year. Its main 

 enemy is the man who must shoot at something, law or no law^ and who 

 takes chances on making an extraordinary bag about which he can 

 brag. 



The hea\y drain on the swan population is due to the high estimate 

 in which swans are held as game, and because of their value for feathers 

 and down. This has brought one species, the Trumpeter Swan, near 

 or quite to extermination; while the other, the Whistling Swan, is 

 alarmingly scarce as compared with its former numbers. In many 

 favorable places where swans regularly wintered in years past there 

 are none at all to be seen at the present time. 



