HUNTING WITH A MICROPHONE 



723 



Leaving Kellogg ready in the sound 

 truck, Tanner and I then rowed two duck- 

 boats to the opposite end of the lake. We 

 followed devious channels so as to avoid the 

 swans until we could start drifting slowly 

 toward them from the opposite side. 



Swans are wary creatures and these kept 

 moving away from us, with the cygnets be- 

 tween them. But so slowly did we ap- 

 proach that they had time to feed as they 

 went, and little did they realize that we 

 had cut off their avenues of escape, except 

 the one that lay past the blind. Never 

 realizing, they fell into this simple trap 

 and within two hours had moved to the far 

 side of the blind. 



Now we increased our speed and rowed 

 in more quickly than the cygnets could 

 swim, cutting them off from their parents 

 and edging them over to the blind. With 

 the two boats this was easily done, and 

 in a few moments we had picked them 

 up and placed them inside the cylinder of 

 screening. 



We now rowed quickly back into the 

 lake, and while Tanner diverted the atten- 

 tion of the old birds, I went ashore and 

 sneaked into the blind. Jim then disap- 

 peared up the lake. 



Within ten minutes the swans had found 

 their youngsters and were talking to them 

 — into the waiting microphone. In a few 

 minutes we had the sounds of both young 

 and old safely recorded. I then pulled 

 gently on the string, capsizing the cylinder 

 and releasing the young without their know- 

 ing just what had happened and without 

 their realizing that we were anywhere 

 around (opposite page). 



The little cygnets swam from one parent 



to the other, talking back and forth and 

 gradually moving up the lake again. They 

 were none the worse for having been our 

 prisoners for a few minutes so that we could 

 make a permanent record of their voices 

 that will go down through the years, even 

 though all their kind should vanish from 

 the earth. 



expedition's swan song 



This was in very truth our swan song, 

 though a happy one, and the end of our 

 expedition. We had exposed ten miles of 

 film, we had recorded the songs and calls 

 of 100 species of birds, including the rarest 

 in North America. We had filmed the home 

 life of nearly as many and had filled our 

 journals with observations that may help 

 in the preservation of vanishing species. 



We now had six days for the return jour- 

 ney; two of these we spent in Yellowstone 

 National Park where we filmed Townsends 

 solitaire and Williamson's sapsucker, and 

 secured recordings of the Lincoln's sparrow, 

 Audubon's warbler, and Clark's nutcracker. 

 Unfortunately, the solitaire, though nest- 

 ing, had stopped singing, and our failure 

 to record this beautiful song was one of the 

 disappointments of the trip. 



By driving night and day and resting 

 only while a broken axle was repaired, we 

 arrived safely at Ithaca just ahead of the 

 greatest flood in the history of central New 

 York. Two hours after we pulled in, the 

 deluge broke and ten inches of rain fell in 

 the next few hours. The hillside road lead- 

 ing to my home was entirely washed out, so 

 that after a successful journey of 15,000 

 miles, our trucks finally became marooned 

 in my own backyard. 



THE SOCIETY'S NEW "BOOK OF BIRDS" IS READY 



The National Geographic Society invites attention of members to its new "Book 

 of Birds," in two volumes, edited by Gilbert Grosvenor and Alexander Wetmore — the 

 first work ever published portraying with comprehensive detail, and with full-color 

 illustrations, all major species of birds on the North American Continent north of 

 Mexico. Full-color portraits of 1,000 birds by Major Allan Brooks, more than 230 

 monochrome photographs and bird migration maps, 633 "bird biographies," and many 

 fascinating articles bv outstanding authorities— T. Gilbert Pearson, Arthur A. Allen, 

 Robert Cushman Murphy, Frederick C. Lincoln, Francis H. Herrick, Alexander Wet- 

 more, etc. — are contained in this 704-page work. 



Because these volumes are published by The Society as a contribution to the 

 increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge, and because the first cost of the en- 

 gravings has been assumed by The National Geographic Magazine, "The Book of 

 Birds" may be purchased at a price of $5.00 the set, postpaid in the United States and 

 possessions; elsewhere 50 cents additional. It is obtainable only from The Society's 

 headquarters, Washington, D. C. 



