AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



3 83 



|)articularly, if among others, there is usually a " how d'ye 

 do" of expression on all sides. Even when wing-broken, 

 these birds can swim with great rapidity, and if not other- 

 wise hurt, a single oars-man in the best constructed boat, can 

 rarely overtake them. A gentleman who resides on the 

 Chesapeake near Bush River, informed me, that a few years 

 since, he had wounded a Swan and afterwards cured and 

 tamed it. To prevent it from flying away, he clipped its 

 wing, but it occasionally escaped to the water, where 

 he had often followed it for several miles, with two 

 rowers, before he could catch it. The unvs'ounded birds, 

 have frequently been seen to collect around a cripple com- 

 panion and urge it to escape, pushing it forward, and I 

 have been informed by good authorities, that they have 

 been observed to place themselves on each side of a disabled 

 Swan, supporting a broken vving, and almost lifting the sub- 

 ject of their affectionate care out of the water. 



Whilst feeding and dressing. Swans make much noise, 

 and through the night, their vociferations can be heard for 

 several miles. Their notes are extremely varied, some, close- 

 ly resembling the deepest base of the common tin horn, whilst 

 others, run through every modulation of false note of the 

 french horn or clarionet. Whether this difference of note 

 depends on age, sex or species, I am not positively assured. 

 Lawson, a traveller in Carolina, in 1700, says, the Trum- 

 peters are much the largest birds, and make the French 

 horn screams, whilst the Hoopers utter the deep notes. Hav- 

 ing never yet satisfied myself of the existence of two species 

 of the American Swan, I have supposed the various voices 

 depended on age or sex, the patriarchs producing the deep 

 organ note. 



The Swan requires five or six years to reach its perfect 

 maturity of size and plumage, the yearling Cygnet, being 

 about one third the magnitude of the adult, and has fea- 

 thers of a deep leaden colour. The smallest Swan I have 

 ever examined, and it was killed in my presence, weighed 

 but eight pounds. Its plumage was very deeply tinted, 

 and it had a bill of a beautiful flesh colour, and very soft. 

 This Cygnet, I presume was a yearling, for, I killed one 

 myself the same day, whose feathers were less dark, but 

 -whose bill was of a dirty white; and the bird weighed twelve 

 pounds. This happened at a time when my attention was 

 not turned scientifically to the subject, and I have forgotten 

 other singularities of the specimens. By the third j'ear, 

 the bill becomes black, and the colour of the plumage less 

 intense, except on the top of the head and back of the neck, 

 which are the last parts forsaken by the colour. Swans of 

 the sixth year, have assumed all the characters of the adult, 

 and very old birds have a hard protuberance on the bend 

 of the last joint of the wing. When less than six years 

 of age, these birds are very tender and delicious eating, 



having the colour and flavour of the Goose, the latter qua- 

 lity is, however, more concentrated and luscious. Hearne 

 considers a Swan "when roasted, equal in flavour to young 

 heifer beef, and the Cygnets are very delicate." As these 

 birds live to a great age, they grow more tough and dry as 

 they advance, the patriarchs being as unmasticable and 

 unsavoury, as the Cygnets are tender and delightful. 



There are many modes practised in the United States of 

 destroying these princely ornaments of the water. In 

 shooting them whilst flying with the wind, the writer just 

 mentioned declares, " they are the most difficult bird to kill 

 I know, it being frequently necessary to take sight ten or 

 twelve feet before the bill." This I should consider an un- 

 necessary allowance, unless driven by a hurricane, but, on 

 ordinary occasions, the bill is aimed at, and if going with a 

 breeze, at a long shot, a foot before the bill would be 

 quite sufficient. The covering is so extremely thick on old 

 birds, that the largest drop shot will rarely kill, unless the 

 Swan is struck in the neck or under the wing, and I have 

 often seen large masses of feathers torn from them, without 

 for an instant, impeding their progress. 



When wounded in the wing alone, a large Swan will 

 readily beat ofi" a dog, and is more than a match for a man 

 in four feet water, a stroke of the wing having broken an 

 arm, and the powerful feet almost obliterating the face of a 

 good sized duck shooter. They are often killed by rifle 

 balls thrown from the shore into the feeding column, and 

 as a ball will ricochet on the water for several hundred 

 yards, a wing may bedisabled at the distance of half a mile. 



These birds are often brought within shooting range, 

 by sailing down upon them whilst feeding, and, as they arise 

 against the wind, and cannot leave the water for fifteen 

 or twenty yards, against which they strike their enor- 

 mous feet and wings most furiously, great advantage is 

 gained in distance. They must be allowed on all occasions 

 to turn the side, for a breast shot rarely succeeds in enter- 

 ing. 



When two feeding coves are separated by a single point, 

 by disturbing the Swans in one or the other occasionally, 

 they will pass and repass very closely to this projection of 

 land, and usually taking as they do, the straight line, each 

 gunner to prevent dispute, names the bird he will shoot at. 



In winter, boats covered bypiecesof ice, the sportsman be- 

 ing dressed in white, are paddled or allowed to float during 

 the night into the midst of a flock, and they have been often- 

 times killed, by being knocked on the head and neck by a 

 pole. There is, however, much danger in this mode, as others 

 may be engaged in like manner, but shooting, and at a short 

 distance, the persons might not be distinguished from the 

 Swan. These birds seem well aware of the range of a gun, 

 and I have followed them in a skiff for miles, driving a body 



