WHISTLING SWAN 71 



LIFE STORY 



The Whistling Swan is the common swan of North America. In 

 size this magnificent snow-white bird ranks among our waterfowl as 

 second only to the Trumpeter Swan. While the former vast numbers of 

 these birds have been greatly reduced, they still exist in comparative 

 abundance. The breeding grounds of this species are so remote, and the 

 birds themselves are so wary and shy, that it is improbable that they 

 will ever be exterminated or even much further reduced in numbers. 

 Swans pair for life, and, once mated, never separate. The young keep 

 with their parents for the first year, and during that period these little 

 families are parted only by the death of their members. The male swan 

 is a "cob," and the female, a "pen." 



Of the start of the spring migration of these swans, Elliot (1898) 

 says: "At the advent of spring the swan begin to show signs of uneasi- 

 ness, and to make preparations for their long journey to the northward. 

 They gather in large flocks and pass much of their time preening their 

 feathers, keeping up a constant flow of loud notes, as though discussing 

 the period of their departure and the method and direction of their 

 course. At length all being in readiness, with loud screams and many 

 who-who's, they mount into the air, and in long lines wing their way 

 toward their breeding places amid the frozen north." E. S. Cameron, 

 in notes quoted by Bent (1925) describing a flock of swans which had 

 stopped off on a lake in Montana on their spring migration says: "These 

 were grouped upon the southwest shore of the lake immediately below 

 the ranch where the fine mountain stream called Alder Creek flows in. 

 Some were standing upon one leg in 2 or 3 inches of water, others floated 

 asleep behind these, with their heads under their wings, and farther away 

 watchful birds, constituting a rear guard, were sailing about. With very 

 few exceptions the swans held one leg along the side either when swim- 

 ming or resting upon the water." Nelson (1887) says: "This fine bird 

 arrives on the shCre of Bering Sea in the vicinity of Mt. Michael early 

 in May." Of the autumn migration, Turner (1886) says: "The young 

 are able to leave the nest by the first week in July, and fly by the middle 

 of September. They migrate about the middle of October .... As many 

 as 500 may form a single line, flying silently just over the shore line at 

 a height of less than 600 feet." 



All too frequently we read in our newspapers accounts of how the 

 swans, migrating *in the spring, have been brought to destruction in the 

 Niagara swan trap. On their northward flight large numbers of these 

 birds sometimes come to rest on the Niagara River above the famous 

 falls. Occasionally some are carried over the falls by the rapids, dashed 

 against the rocks or crushed by the ice, meeting their death in the whirl- 

 pools below. As many as 200 birds have met death in this manner at 

 one time. 



Concerning the courtship of this swan, A. M. Bailey, who witnessed 



