WHISTLING SWANS. (Olor columbianus. ) 
Hrra S. Wixson, 9077 Clarendon Ave., Detroit, Mich. | 
There has been a wonderful increase in the number of Whistling Swans 
of late years noticeably since the enactment of the Migratory Bird Treaty. 
Direct and spectacular evidence of this is given in the large numbers of 
the birds which fly over Detroit and vicinity, and the increasingly large 
numbers which remain in that neighborhood for weeks during the spring 
when all shooting is prohibited. 
It has not been so long since the appearance of a single swan during the 
spring migration was a source of wonder and gratification to the observer, 
and in the fall the bird was unnoted. Two years ago last March one 
swan spent three days in the canals of Belle Isle, Detroit's beautiful play- 
ground, having taken shelter there from a yiolent storm which was 
raging. The bird was very shy and usually saw you first. departing 
hastily as you approached. I tramped over the island every day in the 
early morning and found the bird only when the swish of his big wings 
told me he was leaving, and as there are about 20 miles of canals and in- 
land lakes on the island, it was quite a task. I also saw one bird flying 
high another morning that spring. In the fall of that year I saw no swans 
although hunters told me that a few had been seen at the Flats. But one 
morning in the spring of 1919 I saw two swans resting on the main channel 
of the Detroit River immediately south of Belle Isle. They discovered me 
almost at the same moment and rising flew swiftly toward Lake St. Clair, 
their great wings flapping and their feet paddling the water as they went. 
Later that same morning as I was tramping through the woods at the 
upper end of the island I heard the plaintive notes of a number of swans, 
distant but coming nearer, a sound familiar enough in my childhood when 
I lived in Northern Michigan and swans were so common as to excite 
little interest. The weather was cold and foggy, with no wind or perceptible 
air movement; and the birds, flying low, merely skimming the tree tops, 
came directly over me; and I had a splendid chance to observe their for- 
mation. There were 25 birds in the long wedge-shaped flock, 10 individuals 
on one side and 15 on the other, each bird equally spaced from the other 
and each line as accurate as though spaced and limned by the hand of a 
master. The birds were honking sonorously; my ear catching generally 
about three notes, one very low and two quite high. The higher notes pre- 
dominated. 
I spent the day on the island. The fog lifted soon. All day swans 
were flying back and forth showing that they were not in migration but 
had stopped to rest and feed. At one time I counted 70 birds in the air, 
the biggest flock containing 35 birds flying in two long V-shaped lines, 
the others being in lesser flocks and flying singly. The largest flock that I 
Saw that day contained about 200 birds flying in a long zigzag line quite 
‘like a huge piece of rickrack lace stretched across the sky. 
From the first week in March until the middle of April swans could be 
seen every day, sometimes on the river, more often on the wing; and 
they were as abundant at the Flats as Canada Geese which are always 
