20 WATER FOWL. 



stream. The nest is placed upon an island in some small 

 lake, or on its borders. It is a large structure some- 

 times six feet long, four and a half wide, and two high, 

 composed of grass, dead leaves, moss, and other rubbish. 

 The eggs are pure white or fulvous, and the number 

 seems to vary from one to six, but I should imagine the 

 latter to be very exceptional, or else there must be a great 

 mortality among the cygnets, as it is unusual in winter 

 to see a pair of these birds accompanied by more 

 than two young. The eggs usually lie hidden in the 

 moss, artfully concealed by the female. By the last of 

 June the young are hatched, and are led by the parents 

 to the nearest water, and soon after the adults moult, when 

 many are killed by the natives, who spear the defenseless 

 birds unable to fly, and sometimes capture them alive. 

 Toward the last of September they gather in flocks, and 

 by the second week in October all have departed for 

 southern waters. 



While-ofl-their journey to and from their winter quar- 

 ters, this Swan deserts the coasts and proceeds..inland, 

 traveling at a greaTHetgh^ and making long flights with- 

 out halting. The migrating host from the far north, on 

 entering the United States, separates into three divisions : 

 the western keeping to the Pacific slopes, the center to 

 the valley of the Mississippi (where the species is much 

 more rare than the Trumpeter Swan), and the remainder, 

 or eastern flank, bearing away to the broad waters of the 

 Chesapeake and the sounds of North Carolina. The 

 flocks are strung out in long, divergent lines, headed by 

 some sagacious old bird, whose powerful wings beat the 

 air, and break a passage, so to speak, for those that fol- 

 low. Whenever he becomes fatigued by this extra 

 labor, he utters a note that seems to be well understood 

 by the others, and falling out of line, his place is supplied 



