BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT 199 



in the north it is shot because it is rare, and is wanted lor 

 a "specimen;" if it alights in New England, and is seen, 

 it rarely gets away. 



The great Swan shooting ground now is Currituck Sound. 

 Here the birds find open water, food is plentiful and they 

 are far less harried than on Chesapeake Bay. This is the 

 secret of their increase there, and they will probably continue 

 to maintain their numbers there for years, provided the con- 

 ditions remain favorable. 



There are a good many records of the occin-rence of 

 Swans in New England. Mr. Robert O. Morris of Spring- 

 field, Mass., saw one at Longmeadow "more than twenty 

 years ago." Mr. John Daland, Jr., of Salem says that one 

 was seen at Plum Island about 1885. About 1888 Mr. George 

 Linder saw a flock of over twenty Swans flying very high 

 over Newton, Mass. A small flock was seen on the Charles 

 River in 1891.^ A Whistling Swan was killed at Flatlands, 

 within the limits of Greater New York, by Asher White, 

 December 24, 1901. ^ Six were seen on November 28, 1902, and 

 one shot on December 1 by Mr. W. H. Vivian of Gloucester, 

 Mass.^ Mr. E. W. Eaton writes that he shot at a "bunch" 

 of seven Swans near the mouth of the Merrimac River in 

 November, 1902, wounding one; one of these was shot afterwards 

 by Mr. George F. Thurlow (November 28) . The Rev. Albert E. 

 Hylan states that one was seen by the captain of a towboat on 

 Long Island Sound in 1006. Dr. L. C. Sanford writes that he 

 saw a Swan flying near Watch Hill, R. I., September 19, 1908. 

 Mr. Talbot Denmead of Baltimore writes (1908) that about five 

 hundred still winter near Carroll's Island in Chesapeake Bay, 

 on a club preserve where few are shot; and Col. L. R. Cheney 

 of Hartford says that he has seen as many as five himdred 

 in a single day oft' Virginia beach, about eight miles north of 

 the North CaroHna fine. Several correspondents assert that 

 three fine specimens of this species were taken on Nantucket, 

 Mass., November 29, 1906.^ Two were shot on Squibnocket 



1 Chamberlain, Montague: Nuttall's Manual, 1891, Vol. II, p. 298. 



2 Braislin, William C: Auk, 19(13, p. 52. 



3 Townsend, C. W.: Birds of Essex County, 1905, p. 151 



4 Bent, A. C: Auk, 1907, p. 212. 



