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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



BIRDS WASHED OVER NIAGARA FALLS. 

 By Rev. R. Ashington Bullen, B.A., F.G.S. 



HTHROUGH the kindness of Mr. David Boyle, 

 Curator of the Archaeological Museum, 

 Toronto, Ontario, I have received the following 

 list of birds which are washed over Niagara Falls. 

 It has been compiled by Mr. Roderick Cameron, 

 who has also added an account of how the birds 

 are caught. The list, so far as I can ascertain, 

 has never before been published : — Whistling 

 swans (Cy gnus americana), common brant-geese (Ber- 

 nicla brenta Stephens), Canada goose (B. canadensis 

 Boie), mallard ducks (Anas boschas Linn), pintail 

 ducks (Dafila acuta Jenyns.), American widgeon 

 (Mareca americana Stephens), American green- 

 winged teal (Nettion carol mensis Baird), and other 

 varieties, American eider-duck (Somateria spectabilis 

 Leach), American black-scoter or sea-coot (Pelion- 

 etta perspicillata Kaup), American white pelican 

 (Pelecanus tachyrhynchus), shoveller, or spoonbill 

 duck (Spatula clypeata Boie), gray duck, or gad wall 

 (Chaulelasmus streperus Gray), black dusky-duck 

 (Anas obscura Gmelin), wood-duck (Aix sponsa 

 Boie), canvas-back duck (Aythya vallisneria Bona- 

 parte), red-head duck (A. americana Bonaparte), 

 blue-billed duck, or scaup (Fulix mania Baird), 

 whistle-wing duck (Bucephala americana Baird), 

 golden-eye duck (B. islandica Baird), buffle- 

 head or butter-ball duck (B. albeola Baird), eider or 

 spectacled duck (Somateria spectabilis Leach), 

 scoter, or surf duck (Oidemia americana Swainson), 

 saw-billed duck ( 1 ), mud-hens (Fulica americana 

 Gmelin), and mud-hens (Rallus crepitans Gmelin), 

 sheldrake (Mergus americanus Cassin), red-breasted 

 merganser (M. senator Linn.), hooded merganser 

 (Lophodytes cucullatus Reichart), common cormorant 

 Graculus carbo Gray), ruddy duck (Erismatura mbida 

 Bonaparte), summer duck ( 2 ), coween duck ( a ), great 

 northern diver, or loon (Colymbus torquatns Brun- 

 nich), muffle-head diver (C. arcticus). The scientific 

 names are mainly taken from Samuels' "Birds of 

 New England and Neighbouring States." 



Mr. Roderick Cameron is Superintendent of 

 Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park. He writes : 

 " I may say that all the birds above mentioned 

 come over the Falls at all times when on the river 

 above the Falls, and that is in the autumn and in 

 the spring, when they are migrating southward in 

 the former and northward in the latter. The swans 

 are only seen in the spring ; I once saw about fifty 

 in one flock. ' The pelicans are seen in the autumn 

 only, and very few of them. There is one duck that 

 comes over the Falls in the day-time only and 



(1) ( 3 ) I cannot identify these species scientifically. — R.A.B. 

 2 ) Samuels gives this as Aix sponsa Boie. 



generally about midday, viz., the little " butter- 

 ball." If the day after a very dull cloudy day 

 happens to have bright sunshine, it seems to blind 

 them : they come over the falls in large numbers, 

 and they are very good eating. About a third of 

 them are killed in coming over the Falls, but the 

 rest, being in splendid condition, are unhurt. The 

 other kinds of duck come over the Falls as a 

 rule with heavy fogs, or on dark stormy nights, 

 especially during heavy rain or snow. I have seen 

 as many as 500 blue-billed ducks captured inside 

 three hours, and also twenty to thirty wild geese got 

 in one night. In autumn of 1896 I took as many as 

 seven myself at one time. Geese come over in day- 

 light, in the morning. The ducks play on the river 

 near the rapids above the Falls after coming from 

 the far North. Being tired they get into the rapids 

 and will not rise ; after their plunge over the Falls 

 they sail down the river a little and then rise and 

 attempt to fly back. In doing so they get into the 

 thick spray, fly against the Falls and come along 

 again, but this time dead. A belief of mine is that the 

 ducks get their feathers wet with a heavy rain and 

 do not like to fly and so go over. Otherwise they 

 get into the rapids, and, facing up stream against the 

 current, try to rise and fly back, but the current 

 drives them on until they are over. When the 

 water is low in the river or rapids I have seen 

 them get up and fly back, but I never saw this 

 happen when the river was high. 



" Taking all these things into consideration we 

 know just when to go and hunt for ducks with 

 reflecting lanterns. The ducks are attracted by 

 the light and the dogs then catch them. The 

 ducks and geese are not nearly so plentiful as they 

 were a few years ago. Owing, probably, to their 

 breeding places being disturbed by immigrants 

 settling there, the ducks and other birds seem to 

 be taking another direction. I do not think they 

 are getting wiser and so keeping away from their 

 great danger at Niagara Falls." 



The Rectory, Little Stukelcy, Huntingdon. 



[This list is one of considerable scientific interest, 

 showing that though the ancestors of these birds 

 have probably been killed in the same manner as 

 those above indicated for thousands of years past, 

 they have not learned to avoid the danger of 

 Niagara and other falls on the great American 

 rivers. Can any of our Canadian or general readers 

 give us particulars of similar occurrences at other 

 falls, such as that of Montmorency, by the Island of 

 Orleans in the St. Lawrence River ? — Ed. S.-G.] 



