BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 25 



Rock eddy just below the power house of the Ontario Power 

 Company and within 150 yards of the Horseshoe Falls 



On the morning of the rSth of March two more swan were 

 taken at the ice bridge and a third was picked up alive on the 

 shore at Bass Rock eddy. This latter bird I secured within a 

 half hour after it was found and the picture shows it still in the 

 arms of its captor. It was unable to stand on its feet or to use 

 its wings and was taken in that condition to Buffalo and placed 

 under the care of the curator of the Zoo in Delaware Park. 

 It quickly recovered from its bruises and shock and now (March 

 25th) may be seen floating gracefully on Park Lake. 



On March 22nd I went again to the Falls and saw five more 

 swans that had just been taken by Le Blond while six had been 

 picked up at Bass Rock eddy early that morning. Three others 

 were seen in the gorge but were able to mount into the air and 

 fly over the falls to the upper river. I went up the river to the 

 historic village of Chippewa hoping to find a remnant of this 

 swan brigade, but there was not one to be seen on the river 

 below Navy Island. A flock variously estimated to number 20 

 to 60 individuals had been seen by a number of people the day 

 before. I was unable to learn that any swans had been shot 

 above the Falls although they had been seen there almost every 

 day for a week. 



Rev. J. Hibbert Langille in his book, "Our Birds in Their 

 Haunts", tells of finding a dead swan on the shore of Lake 

 Ontario at the mouth of Johnson's Creek, which he says "by 

 some means unknown, has perished in the course of its long 

 migration". I have little doubt that it met death in the 

 Cataract of the Niagara. 



Mr. J. L. Davison * says "Nearly every season a number 

 of this species (Whistling Swan) are taken in a wounded con- 

 dition in Niagara River, below the falls. They are probably 

 wounded by flying into the falls during storms while migrating 

 during the night. I have also been told that dead specimens 

 have been found on the shore of Lake Ontario near Niagara 

 River, after the ice had broken up in the Spring " 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 



* "Birds of Niagara County, N. Y." By J. L. Davison, Lockport, 

 N. Y. Forest and Stream, Sept. 19, 1889. 



