42 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
five years of age, is probably the most luscious of all water 
fowl. It possesses the taste of the Goose, but more concen- 
trated, and is far more tender; and I have known persons 
nauseated by the extreme sweetness of the flesh. The 
length of time this bird can be preserved untainted is re- 
markable, having seen one of them still perfectly sweet 
four weeks after his death, and without any means having 
been employed, other than an exposure to the air during 
the time, most of which had been wet and warm. The age 
of the Swan may be known by the colour of the feathers, 
&c., the yearling being of a deep leaden tint, with a deli- 
cate red bill; the second year, he is of a lighter colour, 
with a white bill; the third season, his bill has become a 
jet black, but about one third of the plumage is still tipped 
with grey, and till he is five years of age, an occasional 
feather will present the tint of youth. As they live perhaps 
to one hundred years or more, they become exceedingly 
tough and tasteless, and flying, as they generally do, in lines 
of from three to eight with a patriarch at the head, the lead- 
ing Swan is usually passed and the followers chosen. 
These elders have a note remarkably resembling, at a dis- 
tance, the common tin trumpet, and the intensity of their 
inharmonious scream is decreased by youth. 
“ The last sweet notes of the expiring Swan” 
are as unknown in the Chesapeake, as 
"Memnon’s music which at sun rise play’d.” 
When more than one person are shooting, it is usual for 
each to name which Swan he will aim at, and if there be 
not enough for all, two will take a particularly good bird, 
and if it be killed, will decide its possession afterwards, by 
some play of chance. Few are willing to take the first 
bird, even though their position of last in the direction of 
flight, would compel them according to usage, to do so, not 
only from the difficulty and uselessness of killing the old 
ones, but there is much less chance of a stray shot from a 
neighbour’s gun assisting in the destruction. 
In the autumn of 1829, the writer with another person, 
was on Abby Island, when seven Swans were approaching 
the point in one line, and three others a short distance be- 
hind them. The small group appeared exceeding anxious 
to pass the larger, and as they doubled the point at about 
sixty yards distance, the three formed with the second bird 
of the larger flock, a square of probably less than three feet. 
At this moment both guns were discharged, and three 
Swans were killed, and the fourth so much injured, that he 
left the flock and reached the water a short distance in the 
bay, but it being nearly dark, his direction was lost. 
These, with another that had been killed within an hour, 
and three which were subsequently obtained, were all of 
less than five years of age, and averaged a weight of 
eighteen pounds. 
The Swans never leave the open shores of the bay for 
the side streams, and the Geese rarely through the day, 
though they often retire to the little inlets to roost or feed 
at night. Few of these large game are found after their 
regular settlement, above Spesutie Island, but lay on the 
flats in mingled masses of from fifty to five hundred, down 
the western shores, even as far as the Potomac. During a 
still night, a few Swans may often be seen asleep in the 
middle of the bay, surrounded by a group of far more 
watchful Geese; and the writer was paddled at day break 
one morning within ten feet of an enormous sleeping Swan, 
who had probably depended for alarm on the wary Geese, 
by which he had been surrounded, but which, as we ap- 
proached had swam away. By an unforeseen occurrence, 
when a few seconds would have enabled us to have stunned 
him by a blow, he became alarmed, and started in a direc- 
tion that prevented a probable chance of killing, from our 
position, and tottering nature of the skiff". 
The strength of these birds is so great, that if we had at- 
tempted his capture without first disabling him, he would 
doubtless have upset the boat; for it has been known that a 
full grown Swan, and adults usually measure seven feet 
from tip to tip, is more than equal in strength, in three 
feet water, to a good sized man. 
By the middle of December, particularly if the weather 
has been a little severe, the fowl of every kind has become 
so fat, that I have seen Canvass back burst open in the 
breast in falling on the water; and spending less time in 
feeding, pass up and down the bay from river to river, in 
their morning and evening flights, and give at certain locali- 
ties, great opportunities for destruction. They pursue, 
even in their short passages, very much the order of their 
migratory movements, of the line or baseless triangle, and 
when the wind blows on the points which may lie in their 
course, the sportsman has great chances of success. These 
points or courses of the Ducks, are materially affected by 
the winds, for they avoid, if possible, an approach to the 
shore, but when a strong breeze sets them on these pro- 
jections of the land, they are compelled to pass within shot, 
and often over the land itself. 
In the Susquehanna and Elk rivers, there are few of 
these points for shooting, and success depends in those 
places, in destroying them on their feeding grounds. 
After leaving the eastern point at the mouth of the Susque- 
hanna and Turkey Point, the western side of the Elk 
river, which are both moderately good for flying shooting, 
the first place of much celebrity is the narrows, between 
Spesutie Island and the western shore. These narrows 
are about three miles in length, and from three to five 
