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 phwee-oo-od. 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 



