298 
SWIMMERS. 
The Hooper emits its notes only when flying, or calling on 
its mate or companions ; the sound is something like 'whoogh, 
'whoogh, very loud and shrill, but by no means disagreeable 
when heard high in the air and modulated by the winds. The 
natives of Iceland indeed compare it, very flatteringly, to the 
notes of a violin. Allowance must be made, however, for this 
predilection when it is remembered that they hear this cheer- 
ful clarion at the close of a long and gloomy winter, and when, 
in the return of the Swan, they listen to the harbinger of ap- 
proaching summer ; every note must be, therefore, melodious 
which presages the speedy thaw and the return of life and 
verdure to their gelid coast. 
It is to this species alone that the ancients could attribute 
the power of melody, — the singular faculty of tuning its dying 
dirge from among the reedy marshes of its final retreat. In a 
low, plaintive, and stridulous voice, in the moment of death, it 
murmured forth its last prophetic sigh. These doleful strains 
were heard at the dawn of day or when the winds and waves 
were still, and, like the syrinx of Pan, were in all probability 
nothing more than the murmurs and sighs of the wind through 
the marshes and forests graced and frequented by these ele- 
gant aquatic birds. 
Nuttall confounded the American bird with the Hooper, or 
Whooper, of Europe, also sometimes called the Whistling Swan, 
tliough they are quite distinct. 
Our bird winters on the Atlantic shore of the Southern States 
and breeds in the fur countries, but does not migrate either way 
along the Atlantic coast, where it is rarely seen north of Chesa- 
peake Bay. Within the last few years a few examples have been 
seen in New England, and I examined in the flesh one that was 
shot in New Brunswick. I think that in former years it must 
have occurred more frequently in this vicinity, for the Indians of 
Maine and the Provinces know the bird well, and have a distinctive 
name for it. The Indians .say the Swan is always found in the 
wake of a flock of Geese; though a small flock that were seen on 
the Charles River in 1891 were apparently travelling without a 
guide. 
Mr. Mcllwraith reports that in March, 1890, a flock of twenty 
Swans appeared on Lake Ontario, near Hamilton. 
