The Whistling Swan on Niagara 



River. 



By James Savage, Buffalo, N. Y. 



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 1906, 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 15th 1908 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 attention was first attracted to a swan struggling in the 

 water at the upper edge of the ice bridge, but on looking to 

 ward the falls he saw a great company of swans in distress com- 

 ing 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 



