BOE BNOtCS? AU DUB ‘O NY BU Lew DIN 1a 
knew quite well you may lay it all to your own advice. (Baird had 
advised Robert to observe carefully and to write up his observations 
fully.) (Letter from Kennicott to Baird, Feb. 14, 1854). 
We do not know what happened to the crane. It was but one of the 
creatures at [he Grove, where there were domesticated farm animals, and 
dogs and cats as well as numerous captive snakes and small animals and 
many nesting wild birds, all of which were the subjects of Robert Kenni- 
cott’s observation as a budding naturalist. 
—724 West State Street 
Jacksonville, Illinois 62659 
Eulogy for Whisper, the Mute Swan 
by VINNIE T. DYKE 
Mention was made in the IAS Bulletin for September, 1964, of the arrival 
during spring migration of a Mute Swan. The swan was at Lake Rawson, 
near Bureau, Illinois, located in the Illinois River valley. The fowl was 
so friendly that he soon became the pet of the fishermen’s club members, 
who lease the lake, and of the staff of the Ranch House, a well-known 
restaurant located on the lake shore. He was also a favorite of the towns- 
people of Bureau and the Bureau Valley Audubon Club with members 
in the area. 
Because of the mute swan’s hissing-like call, a fisherman friend 
named him “Whisper.” After his first summer at the lake, he still lingered. 
The area is a hunters’ paradise, and the lake sometimes freezes solid in 
winter. For his own safety, it was decided by the lake managers and con- 
servation officers to clip his flight feathers and transport him to a pet 
farm west of Princeton. He was returned to the lake in April. His second 
winter and succeeding ones were spent on the ridge farm of a Mr. Pierson, 
a fisherman who also raised poultry. Mr. Pierson said that Whisper 
seemed to understand when he was returning to the lake each spring, for, 
on the way, he quivered in anticipation. 
By his third spring at the lake, the officials of a huge steel plant, 
Jones and Laughlin, located three miles away at Hennepin, had become 
interested in the lone swan and asked permission to purchase a mate for 
him. Permission was given, and a young female swan was ordered from 
a zoo near Boston, Massachusetts. 
