Wayne: Birds of South Carolina. 23 



My friend Dr. Bachman, of Charleston, South Carolina, kept a male Snow Goose 

 several years along with his tame geese. He had received it from a friend while 

 it was in its grey plumage, and the following spring it became white. It had been 

 procured in the autumn, and proved to be a male. In a few days it became very 

 gentle, and for several years it mated with a common goose; but the eggs produced 

 by the latter never hatched. The Snow Goose was in the habit of daily frequent- 

 ing a mill-pond in the vicinity, and returning regularly at night along with the 

 rest; but in the beginning of each spring it occasioned much trouble. It then con- 

 tinually raised it head and wings, and attempted to fly off; but finding this im- 

 possible, it seemed anxious to perform its long journey on foot, and it was several 

 times overtaken and brought back, after it had proceeded more than a mile, hav- 

 ing crossed fences and plantations in a direct course northward. This propensity 

 cost it its life : it had proceeded as far as the banks of the Cooper river, when it was 

 shot by a person who supposed it to be a wild bird. 



This must be the form that is known to occur regularly in the 

 winter on the Wateree, Congaree and Saluda rivers in the upper 

 part of the State, but I have never been able to procure a speci- 

 men for identification. 



59. Branta canadensis (Linn.). Canada Goose. 



Mr. Ferdinand Gregorie saw and also heard a large flock of 

 these geese flying over the Wando River on October 24, 1905, 

 and Mr. H. R. Hale shot one (which had attempted to alight on 

 his house) from a flock of five on November 22, 1905. This spec- 

 imen is now in my collection, and agrees in some respects with 

 Hutchin's Goose; but the brownish white cheek-patches are sep- 

 arated by a black throat-stripe, and the culmen measures 1.90 

 inches. Mr. Hale shot this goose in a potato field on his planta- 

 tion, near the Wando River. One specimen has been taken on 

 Long Island, while three were taken about twenty years ago near 

 Mount Pleasant. This goose still occurs commonly on the riv- 

 ers in the upper part of the State, but it is a rara avis on the coast. 



60. Olor columbianus (Ord) . Whistling Swan. 



During very severe winters these beautiful birds are occasion- 

 ally seen and taken on the Waccamaw and Combahee rivers, and 

 in the winter of 1905, a young bird was taken on the latter river. 

 There were two specimens of this swan in the Charleston Museum, 

 both of which were taken on this river. My friend, Dr. Gabriel 

 E. Manigault, told me that when he was a young man, one 

 of these swans spent the entire winter in an artificial pond on 

 his grandfather's plantation on the banks of the Combahee. Mr. 

 Nathaniel Heyward, the owner of the plantation, prohibited any- 

 one from molesting this swan as he believed that the bird would 

 get a mate and breed on the place. No one could convince him 



