190S.] 



BIEDS. 



309 



As confirming this evidence that the bird uses a portion of the 

 vallev of the Yukon as a migration route, the following paragraph 

 by Baird, Brewer, and Bidgway is of interest : 



Mr. Kennicott, in a note dated Fort Yukon, May 19, refers to procuring 

 three specimens of tliis bird, known in tliat region as the ' Eskimo Goose 

 He states that it arrives there the latest of all the birds, and after nearly all the 

 other Geese have passed. It flies in large flocks, and very rapidly. The 

 three specimens were the first noticed that season, and the only ones killed, 

 although two dozen or more flocks of from 25 to 50 were seen in all ; but 

 in no comparison, in point of numbers, with the other four species. This 

 bird is said to pass La Pierre House in immense numbers both in spring and 

 fall.« 



While at Fort ^IcPherson in the summer of 1904, I learned that 

 large numbers of ' husky or black geese ' had passed down Peel 

 Biver during the latter part of May, the first having been observed 

 about May 17. 



Olor columbianus (Ord). Wliistling Swan. 



Formerly abundant, this species now passes through the region in 

 spring and fall in small niunbers, apparently breeding only in the 

 far north. While we were crossing Athabaska Lake from the delta 

 of the Athabaska to Fort Chipewyan during the night of May IT, 

 1901, we several times heard the loud whistling notes of these birds. 

 They were again heard near Fort Chipewyan during the nights of 

 May 21 and 2G. 



In 1903 I first noted this fine species on Great Bear Lake, near 

 Manito Islands, September 15, vrhen its soft notes were heard from 

 a group of low islands at some distance offshore, and a few tracks on 

 the sandy beach showed where the great birds had been feeding. Its 

 notes were again heard among some sandy islands in the Mackenzie, 

 15 miles above Gravel Biver. on October 6. 



In the spring of 1904 two individuals were seen on the Mackenzie 

 near Fort Simpson early on the morning of May 5. 



While the birds were still abimdant swan skins formed an impor- 

 tant article of trade. I was told that sixty or seventy years ago about 

 500 were annually traded at the Hudson's Bay Company post at Isle a 

 la Crosse, and that an annual average of 300 skins was obtained at 

 Fort Anderson during the five years of its existence. 



MacFarlane states that between 1853 and 1877 the Hudson's Bay 

 Company sold a total of 17,671 swan skins. The number sold an- 

 nually ranged from 1,312 in 1854 to 122 in 1877. 



From 1858 to 1884, inclusive, Athabasca district turned out 2,705 swan skins, 

 nearly all of them from Fort Chipewyan. Mackenzie River district, according 

 to a statement in my possession, supplied 2,500 skins from 1863 to 1883. From 

 1'5<;2 to 1877 Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake, contributed 798 thereof. For 



« Water Birds X. A., I, p. 473, 1884. 



