I30 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



our list on the strength of a specimen taken in Weston, it may be well to state 

 that Norumbega Tower stands only one hundred yards or less from the bound- 

 arj' of Waltham and that, as the sLx birds which escaped "flew out of sight, 

 following the course of the river towards ^^"altham," there can be no question 

 that they were actually seen to enter that town and hence the Cambridge 

 Region. 



There is a Whistling Swan in the collection of the Boston Society of 

 Natural Histor)- that is said^ to have been taken at Nahant b)- a Mr. Taylor 

 about 1S65, and I have a young bird in grayish plumage, which the late Mr. 

 W. Wendte found hanging in a pro\nsion store at Xewbur}'port, and sent to me 

 on December 2, 1902, vsith a letter from which I take the following extracts : 

 "On nth m. 27 [November 27, 1902,] six of these birds were seen in the 

 water near Woodbridge Island, Newburyport Harbor. The fact v.^as reported 

 to Geo. F. Thurlow, who sculled over to the spot the next day and there killed 

 one of them, which is now in thy collection." About a month later he wrote 

 me that he had ascertained that " the bird was first crippled in the water off 

 Woodbridge Island," but that it afterwards "flew over into Plum Island Creek 

 within the limits of Xewburj', and there was captured." It is probable that 

 some of the survavors of this flock lingered in the neighborhood of the locality 

 where they were first seen for several days, for on December 4, 1902, the 

 ' Gloucester Daily Times ' published an account of a " \Miistling Swan .... shot 

 one day this week in Ipswich Bay" by Mr. William H.Vivian of Gloucester, 

 Massachusetts. On writing to Mr. Vi\-ian I learned that the bird was alone and 

 that he killed it "on Dec. i at about 9 a. m.," as it was fl}'ing past his boat 

 which lay, at the time, " about two hundred yards off the beach, at the westerly 

 side of Essex Road." The specimen was mounted and is still, I believe, in Mr. 

 Vi\-ian's possession. 



Swans, no doubt representing the present species, and perhaps also O. buc- 

 cinator, are mentioned by most of the early writers on New England. Morton 

 saj's : " There are of them in Merrimack River, and in other parts of the coun- 

 tr)', greate ftore at the feafons of the yeare ; " - Wood: "There be likewife 

 many Swannes which frequent the frefh ponds and rivers, feldome conforting 

 themfelves with Duckes and Geefe." ^ These statements show conclusively that 

 the birds must have occurred regularly and nimierously in eastern Massachusetts 

 before the countr\- became thicklv settled. 



1 W. Brewster, BaUetin of the Xuttall Ornithological Club. IV, 1879, 125. 



' Thomas Morton. New English Canaan, 1637, 67. Ed. C. F. Adams, Jr., 18S3, 189. 



' William Wood, New Englands Prospect, ed. 2, 1635, 26. 



