48 
FRANK FORESTER'S FIELD SPORTS. 
When making either their semi-annual migration or shorter ex¬ 
peditions, an occasional scream, equal to ‘ how do you all come 
on, behind V issues from the leader, which is almost immediately 
responded to by some posterior Swan, with an ‘ alfs-well ’ vocif¬ 
eration. When the leader of the party becomes fatigued with 
his extra duty of cutting the air, he falls in the rear and his neigh¬ 
bor 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 hea¬ 
ven, 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 j 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 append¬ 
ages to the prolonged point in front. 
“ When thus in motion, their wings pass through so few de¬ 
grees of the circle, that, unless seen horizontally, they appear 
almost quiescent, being widely different from the heavy, semi¬ 
circular sweep of the Goose. The Swan, when migrating with 
a moderate wind in his favor, and mounted high in the air, cer¬ 
tainly 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 velocity. 
“ The Swans, in travelling from the northern parts of Amei’ica 
to their winter residence, generally keep far inland, mounted 
above the highest peaks of the Alleghanies, 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 in their migrating flight unless overtaken by stoira, 
above the reach of which occurrence they generally soar. They 
