196 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



to the mistaken idea, now held by many intelhgent gunners 

 and sportsmen, that the numbers of Swans are increasing. 

 The Whistling Swan has been driven farther south year by 

 year, until all its flocks are crowded into a region perhaps 

 not one- tenth as large as the one formerly occupied by them, 

 and in consequence they seem to be increasing there. In 

 reality the species is decreasing steadily in numbers. Every 

 year the increase of population in the southwest tends to render 

 that region more unsafe for the Swan. Mr. J. D. Mitchell 

 writes from Victoria, Tex., that forty years ago the bays and 

 estuaries were full of Swans, and that he has seen more than 

 a thousand at a time, not only in one locality but in several 

 counties. He has not seen one now in more than ten years. 

 Preble (1908) says that this species formerly was abundant 

 in the Athabasca-Mackenzie region, where it bred. Now, he 

 says, it passes through the region in small numbers, breeding 

 only in the far north. 



The records of the traffic in swan's-down tell the story. 

 Sixty or sevent}^ years ago, while the birds were still abun- 

 dant in the fur countries, about five hundred skins were 

 traded annually at the Hudson Bay Company's post at Isle 

 a la Crosse, and about three hundred annually were taken at 

 Fort Anderson during the five years of its existence. Mac- 

 Farlane states that between 1853 and 1877 the company 

 sold seventeen thousand six hundred and seventy-one Swan 

 skins. The number sold annually went from one thousand 

 three hundred and twelve in 1854 down to one hundred and 

 twenty-two in 1877. From 1858 to 1884, inclusive, Atha- 

 basca district sent out two thousand seven hundred and five 

 Swan skins, nearly all from Fort Chipewyan. Mackenzie 

 River district furnished twenty-five hundred skins from 1863 

 to 1883. In 1853 Athabasca turned out two hundred and 

 fifty-one; in 1889 the output had dwindled to thirty-three. 

 In 1889 and 1890 Isle a la Crosse sent out but two skins for 

 each outfit. The rapid decrease of those birds, says Preble, 

 is well illustrated by these figures.^ 



' Preble, E. A.: North American Fauna, Bureau of Biol. Surv., Dept. of Agr., 1908, No. 27, 

 pp. 309, 310. 



