AMERICAN SWAN. 227 



equal to 'how do you all come on behind?' issues from the leader, which is 

 almost immediately replied to by some posterior Swan with an 'all's well' 

 vociferation. When the leader of the party becomes fatigued with his extra 

 duty of cutting the air, he falls in the rear, and his neighbour takes his place. 

 When mounted, as they sometimes are, several thousand feet above the 

 earth, with their diminished and delicate outline hardly perceptible against 

 the clear blue of heaven, this harsh sound softened and modulated by distance, 

 and issuing from the immense void above, assumes a supernatural character 

 of tone and impression, that excites, the first time heard, a strangely peculiar 

 feeling. 



"In ftying, these birds make a strange appearance; their long necks 

 protrude and present, at a distance, mere lines with black points, and occupy 

 more than one-half their whole length, their heavy bodies and triangular 

 wings seeming but mere appendages to the prolonged point in front. 



"When thus in motion, their wings pass through so few degrees of the cir- 

 cle, that, unless seen horizontally, they appear almost quiescent, being widely 

 different from the heavy semicircular sweep of the Goose. The Swan, 

 when migrating, with a moderate wind in his favour, and mounted high in 

 the air, certainly travels at the rate of one hundred miles or more an hour. 

 I have often timed the flight of the Goose, and found one mile a minute a 

 common rapidity, and when the two birds, in a change of feeding-ground, 

 have been flying near each other, which I have often seen, the Swan 

 invariably passed with nearly double the velocity. 



"The Swans in travelling from the northern parts of America to their 

 winter residence, generally keep far inland, mounted above the highest peaks 

 of the Alleghany, and rarely follow the water-courses like the Geese, which 

 usually stop on the route, particularly if they have taken the sea-board. The 

 Swans rarely pause on their migrating flight, unless overtaken by a storm, 

 above the reach of which occurrence they generally soar. They have been 

 seen following the coast in but very few instances. They arrive at their 

 winter homes in October and November, and immediately take possession 

 of their regular feeding-grounds. They generally reach these places in the 

 night, and the first signal of their arrival at their winter abode is a general 

 burst of melody, making the shores ring for several hours with their 

 vociferating congratulations, whilst making amends for a long fast, and 

 pluming their deranged feathers. From these localities they rarely depart 

 unless driven farther south by intensely cold weather, until their vernal 

 excursion. When the spring arrives, a similar collection of forces as at the 

 north takes place in March, and, after disturbing the tranquil bosom of the 

 water for a night, by incessant washing and dressing, and alarming the quiet 



