Flora and Fauna 



1880 



Savage, James. The whistling swan on Niagara river. (Bull, of 1880 

 the Buf. Soc. of Nat. Sci. 9: No. 1 , 23-28.) Savage 



The Whistling Swan, Olor columbianus, is a rare migrant 

 along Niagara River. It may be said to occur regularly about 

 the middle of March and casually in the fall. Its capture how- 

 ever would scarcely be possible were it not for its proneness to 

 float down the river to injury or death at Niagara Falls. 



I am told by observers living at Niagara Falls in a position to 

 know, that scarcely a year passes without one or more swans 

 being sacrificed at the Cataract. In March, 1 906, about a 

 score made the fatal plunge and in the same month, 1907, five 

 were taken but no such catastrophe in the swan world has ever 

 been described as that which happened on March 1 5th, 1 908, 

 when more than one hundred of these majestic birds, journeying 

 toward their summer home near the Arctic Circle, came to an 

 untimely end. 



A severe rain-storm accompanied by thunder and lightning 

 prevailed during the greater part of that day (March 15, 1908). 

 About eleven o'clock in the morning, between showers, William 

 LeBlond of Niagara Falls, Ontario, was engaged in removing 

 from the ice bridge a temporary structure that had been used 

 during the winter " season " as a souvenir and refreshment stand, 

 when he was startled by a loud cry. Turning around, his atten- 

 tion was first attracted to a swan struggling in the water at the 

 upper edge of the ice bridge, but on looking toward the falls he 

 saw a great company of swans in distress coming toward the 

 bridge. The scene that followed was a sad one for any bird 

 lover to contemplate. 



These splendid birds, helpless after their terrible plunge over 

 the cataract, were dashed against the ice bridge by the swift 

 current, amid cakes of loose ice which were constantly coming 

 down from the upper river. Some had been killed outright by 

 the falls. Others, unable to fly because of injury to their wings, 



467 



