BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 197 



These skins were taken from both species, but Nuttall says 

 that the Trumpeter furnished the bulk of them. When it 

 is considered that from all this vast region the Hudson Bay 

 Company collected in the best year given only one thousand 

 three hundred and twelve Swan skins, and that in the old 

 days thousands of Swans were seen in a flock, it is plain that 

 this traffic cannot be held entirely responsible for the de- 

 crease of Swans; it could have been but a small factor in 

 producing that result. The killing of Swans by Eskimos and 

 Indians in August, when the birds are unable to fly, is a drain 

 on their numbers; but that has been customary from time 

 immemorial, yet there were multitudes of Swans when the 

 white man came. 



We cannot, if we would, evade the fact that the white 

 man and his gun are the chief factors in the destruction of 

 the Swan. The Trumpeter suffered first and most, because 

 it bred in the United States and Canada, directly in the path 

 of settlement. The Whistling Swan suffered less, because it 

 nested mainly on the shores of the Arctic Sea, and in the great 

 lands in that sea where white men rarely go. The only safety 

 for the Swans in passing over the settled regions in their 

 flight to the south is to rise high in the air, wuth favoring 

 winds, and never rest until they have flown twelve hundred 

 or fifteen hundred miles, passed over the teeming villages 

 and cities of the north and reached the more secluded and 

 safer waters of the south. Unfortunately for them, however, 

 they are still prone to alight to rest in isolated lakes and 

 ponds, where often they are waylaid by the hunter. If a 

 storm overtakes them and they have to fly below the clouds 

 to see their way the wearied birds are sometimes beaten to 

 earth by sleet, or are forced to alight in some stream. In 

 such cases they are hardly accorded the hospitality usually 

 extended to storm-beaten travellers; instead, the people 

 turn out to slaughter them. 



Sennett describes an occurrence of this kind which took 

 place in northwestern Pennsylvania, March 22, 1879. The 

 Swans, overweighted with sleet and snow, came down in 

 many places in Crawford, Mercer, Venango and Warren 



