CHAPTER XIX. 
SWIMMING BIRDS. 
Swans, in my lengthened experience, I have never seen 
in lower latitudes than the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, 
and it requires very severe weather indeed to force them 
farther southward; however, they are occasionally’ found 
on the coast of Georgia. Last season I spent the winter 
upon a large arm of the sea in Maryland, and as the frosts 
were unusually protracted, swans were abundant. Their 
ordinary habitat may, therefore, be considered to stretch 
from Virginia to the Arctic regions; in the latter they 
spend their summer. As they are of little use for the 
table, but seldom commit damage to the crops, and are ex- 
tremely ornamental, it is a great pity to destroy them, and, 
thanks to their extreme wariness, this is seldom ac¢om- 
plished. Moreover, they are so powerful on the wing, and 
their covering of down so dense, that they must be within 
easy range for the gunner to bring them to bag. As a 
rule, I confidently believe that half these birds that are 
shot, escape to die a miserable death from hemorrhage or 
starvation. 
Although I have obtained shots at swans, they were 
more frequently the result of chance than intention. How- 
ever, last. winter, I determined to obtain a specimen for 
myself, and two others for friends, on which the taxi- 
dermist should exercise his skill, so that I might retain a 
memento of my sojourn on the Maryland swamp-washed 
shores of the Chesapeake. The weather had been very 
variable, jumping, with those sudden changes peculiar to 
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