THE OOLOGIST 



53 



swans, with a single young, are spend- 

 ing the winter on Bayou Sara creek, 

 near St. Francisville. This was the 

 latest society note in birddom re- 

 ceived by the State Department of 

 Conservation from Edward Butler of 

 West Feliciana parish, who is a noted 

 bird observer and wild life protection- 

 ist of that section. 



The occurrence of a single individ- 

 ual of this species of waterfowl today 

 is more than worthy of record, but the 

 observation of a pair, with a cygnet 

 in the characteristic gray plumage of 

 the young, is a positive sensation in 

 the bird world. The last trumpeter 

 swan observed since Ernest Thompson 

 Seton saw seven in the Saskatchewan 

 in 1907, was when a big gander vis- 

 ited the Louisiana state wild life 

 refuge in the winter of 1915. It flew 

 down to the preserve with a flock of 

 Canada geese and in the spring went 

 North with the wedge of geese. 



The officials of the Department of 

 Conservation held high hopes that it 

 would return the following winter with 

 a Mrs. Swan and possibly a pair of 

 cygnets. But contrary to these expec- 

 tations the lone, and supposedly last 

 members of its race, returned to the 

 refuge unaccompanied by others of its 

 species, and took up its winter resi- 

 dence on Fearman lake. During the 

 month of February a resident of Ab- 

 beville passing through the refuge on 

 a dredgboat shot the bird "for curios- 

 ity" and taking it home enjoyed a din- 

 ner of "roast goose." 



This was the last record of a trum- 

 peter swan being seen until Mr. But- 

 ler's startling news reached the office 

 of the department Friday morning. 

 "No doubt you will be interested in 

 learning that three trumpeter swans 

 have been on Bayou Sara creek since 

 late December," he wrote. "They are 

 a pair with one young, the latter show- 

 ing gray plumage. Every effort has 



been made to keep them from being 

 molested and it is gratifying to know 

 that nearly everyone seems to be in- 

 terested in their welfare. They are 

 usually found below the bridge, but 

 when disturbed by people passing too 

 near, they go in the dircetion of the 

 Mississippi river.'* 



The appearance of these rare and in- 

 teresting birds in the West Feliciana 

 country calls to mind the fact that it 

 was in this part of Louisiana, and par- 

 ticularly along Bayou Sara creek, that 

 the great Audubon spent the most suc- 

 cessful periods of his career as an art- 

 ist preparing the drawing of wild 

 birds that afterwards won him fame 

 and renown as the foremost bird art- 

 ist of his time. Special efforts will be 

 made by the Department of Conser- 

 vation to see that these birds receive 

 proper protection during their stay in 

 Louisiana. They are also protected 

 by the federal migratory bird law." 



A Soldier's Birds 



My year in France is up today, dur- 

 ing which I have gone through every 

 American offensive and have finally 

 landed in a hospital with a "snoot full" 

 of gas. I had a letter today from Law- 

 ton Graham, who suggested that I 

 write you of what bird observations I 

 had made over here. When I began to 

 sum up the year, I found that I had 

 learned nothing of birds. 



Only at one place where I have been 

 there has been an abundance of bird 

 life. When we took our first permanent 

 sector last spring, it was near the 

 frontier, where the last foot hill of 

 the Vosges levels into the rolling 

 country of French Lorraine. On this 

 same hill some one had built a small 

 single room hut just at the edge of a 

 pine forest. It must have been the 

 haunts of some artist for it was made 

 of colored tile and plaster and roofed 

 with red tile. The outside walls were 



