. The oist . the spring until April 30th. and itwas not long before men and boys,armed with guns and sticks, availedthemselves of the privilege and be-came the chief factors in the closingscene of natures great tragedy—thesacrifice of the swans. Tlie news of a Great Slaughter ofWild Swan appeared in the Buffalo newspapers on March 17th, and thewriter started for Niagara Falls forth-with to investigate the matter. Asnearly as could be ascertained from in-terviews with various participants inthe slaughter, the number of swanstaken on March 15th was one hundredand two. Not all of these were taken
. The oist . the spring until April 30th. and itwas not long before men and boys,armed with guns and sticks, availedthemselves of the privilege and be-came the chief factors in the closingscene of natures great tragedy—thesacrifice of the swans. Tlie news of a Great Slaughter ofWild Swan appeared in the Buffalo newspapers on March 17th, and thewriter started for Niagara Falls forth-with to investigate the matter. Asnearly as could be ascertained from in-terviews with various participants inthe slaughter, the number of swanstaken on March 15th was one hundredand two. Not all of these were takenon the ice bridge. A number werepulled out of Bass Rock Eddy, justbelow the power house of the OntarioPower Company, and within 150 yardsof the Horseshoe Falls. On the morning of the ISth ofMarch, two more swan were taken atthe ice bridge and a third was pickedup alive at Bass Rock Eddy. Thislatter bird I secured within half anhour after it was found and the pic-ture shows it still in the arms of Injured Swan, American Falls in by the Author. THE OOLOGIST. 103 It was unable to stand on its feetor to use its wings, and was taken inthat condition to Buffalo, and placedunder the care of the curator of theZoo in Delaware Park. It quicklj re-covered from its bruises and shock,and now (March 25th). may be seenfloating gracefully on Park Lake. On March 22nd I went again to theFalls, and saw five more swans thathad just been taken by LeBlond,while six had been picked up at BassRock eddy early that morning. Threeothers were seen in the gorge but wereable to mount into the air and fly overthe falls to the upper river. I wentup the river to the historic villageof Chippewa, hoping to find a rem-nant of this swan brigade, but therewas not one to be seen on the riverbelow Xavy Island . A flock, various-ly estimated to number 20 to 60 indi-viduals had been seen by a number of people the day before. I was un-able to learn that any swans had beenshot above
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