AMERICAN SWAN. 
227 
equal to ‘how do you all come on behind?’ issues from the leader, which is 
almost immediately replied to by some posterior Swan with an ‘ all’s well ’ 
vociferation. When the leader of the party becomes fatigued with his extra 
duty of cutting the air, he falls in the rear, and his neighbour takes his place. 
When mounted, as they sometimes are, several thousand feet above the 
earth, with their diminished and delicate outline hardly perceptible against 
the clear blue of heaven, this harsh sound, softened and modulated by distance, 
and issuing from the immense void above, assumes a supernatural character 
of tone and impression, that excites, the first time heard, a strangely peculiar 
feeling. 
“In flying, these birds make a strange appearance; their long necks 
protrude and present, at a distance, mere lines with black points, and occupy 
more than one half their whole length, their heavy bodies and triangular 
wings seeming but mere appendages to the prolonged point in front. 
“ When thus in motion, their wings pass through so few degrees of the cir- 
cle, that, unless seen horizontally, they appear almost quiescent, being widely 
different from the heavy semicircular sweep of the Goose. The Swan, 
when migrating, with a moderate wind in his favour, and mounted high in 
the air, certainly travels at the rate of one hundred miles or more an hour. 
I have often timed the flight of the Goose, and found one mile a minute a 
common rapidity, and when the two birds, in a change of feeding ground, 
have been flying near each other, which I have often seen, the Swan 
invariably passed with nearly double the velocity. 
“ The Swans in travelling from the northern parts of America to their 
winter residence, generally keep far inland, mounted above the highest peaks 
of the Alleghany, and rarely follow the water-courses like the Geese, which 
usually stop on the route, particularly if they have taken the sea-board. The 
Swans rarely pause on their migrating flight, unless overtaken by a storm, 
above the reach of which occurrence they generally soar. They have been 
seen following the coast in but a very few instances. They arrive at their 
winter homes in October and November, and immediately take possession 
of their regular feeding-grounds. They generally reach these places in the 
night, and the first signal of their arrival at their winter abode is a general 
burst of melody, making the shores ring for several hours with their 
vociferating congratulations, whilst making amends for a long fast, and 
pluming their deranged feathers. Prom these localities they rarely depart 
unless driven farther south by intensely cold weather, until their vernal 
excursion. When the spring arrives, a similar collection of forces as at the 
north takes place in March, and, after disturbing the tranquil bosom of the 
water for a night, by incessant washing and dressing, and alarming the quiet 
