Flora and Fauna 



I was unable to learn that any swans had been shot above the 1880 

 falls although they had been seen there almost every day for a avage 

 week. 



While it may be true that birds sometimes fly into the falls 

 from the gorge below, I know that the swans in the present 

 instance went over the precipice from the upper river. They 

 were seen above the rapids before eleven o'clock on the morning 

 of March 1 5th. 



After a long tiresome flight from Chesapeake Bay the 

 open water of Niagara River would be a welcome sight to this 

 ill-fated flock of swans. Resting from their labors they prob- 

 ably drifted down stream unsuspecting danger until too late to 

 save themselves from plunging into the turbulent waters of the 

 Canadian Rapids. These rapids begin abruptly with a drop of 

 about ten feet in a line running across the river from the head of 

 Goat Island to the gate house of the Ontario Power Company on 

 the Canadian shore. I have watched gulls float down over the 

 crest and spring into the air from the descending water. " Swan 

 being so large and heavy cannot easily take wing but are obliged 

 to force themselves over the water against the wind, by rapid and 

 powerful beats of the wings and feet until obtaining the requisite 

 momentum, they are lifted into the air." 1 When they reach this 

 line of breakers they are probably carried down and completely 

 submerged, after which by reason of confusion or inability, they 

 cannot fly but are rushed forward and a minute or two later are 

 carried over the brink of the precipice and plunged 1 60 feet into 

 the gorge below. 



Swans are not the only waterfowl that are sacrificed at 

 Niagara's shrine. On the occasion of my visit March 18th, I 

 saw a handsome male Canvasback duck, Ayth\)a vallisneria 

 (Wils), come down against the ice bridge. It was unable to 

 fly but succeeded in extricating itself from the moving ice and 

 gaining a foothold on the bridge at a point where to attempt to 



1 " The wildfowl of the United States," by Daniel Girand Elliot. 



469 



