B U l_ l_ EI T I INI 



of the 



Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 



VOLUME IX. No. 2 



A Group of Whistling Swans. 



{See Frontispiece) 



The frontispiece shows an interesting group of the Whist- 

 ling Swans, Olor columbianus, mounted for the Buffalo Society 

 of Natural Sciences and displayed with its collections. 



These beautiful wild birds met an untimely death in the 

 early part of March, 1908, when on their long migration to 

 their breeding grounds in the far north. Exhausted and 

 hungry they dropped for rest and food in the wide expanse 

 of the Niagara River above the falls. The weather being 

 at that time very hazy, they drifted into the rapids and were 

 carried over the Horseshoe Fall to their destruction. Many 

 were killed outright and the others were so hurt and maimed 

 that they could not recover. It is estimated by Mr. Ottomar 

 Reinecke who secured these specimens for the Society that 

 about 102 met their death at that time. A detailed account of 

 this occurrence was published in our last bulletin. In the 

 spring of 1906 sixteen and in 1907 six of these wild swans 

 were killed in the same manner. In the early part of Novem- 

 ber 1908 four more met their death at the Falls while migrating 

 southward and in the following month two late travellers ended 

 their journey there. 



