Ducks, GEESE, AND SWANS. 243 
the Delaware Valley. Old maps and deeds refer to 
Swan Point and Swan Island too frequently not to 
indicate that the names came in use through the one- 















Whistling Swan. 
time occurrence of these birds. Dr. Warren speaks 
of these birds as common at certain seasons on Lake 
Erie and along the rivers. Steamboats have effectu- 
ally driven them from the Delaware. According to 
Mr. Dall, who saw these birds in numbers on the 
Yukon River, “the eggs are usually in a tussock 
quite surrounded by water, so that the female must 
sometimes sit with her feet in the water.” The swans 
when flying utter a shrill note, like phwée-d0-00. You 
hear the same cry occasionally when the wind screams 
through ice-coated telegraph-wires. 
In the Wild Geese we have birds of a more com- 
monplace character, yet they are very interesting 
outside of the attractions they possess for the sports- 
man. There is a wealth of suggestiveness in hearing 
the “honk” of wild geese in early spring that would 
