by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
THE SWANS OF AMERICA.
In our journey we had kept far enough to the north to avoid thedifficult route of the Ozark Hills; and we at length encamped upon theMarais de Cygnes, a branch of the Osage River. Beyond this we expectedto fall in with the buffalo, and of course we were full of pleasantanticipation. Near the point where we had pitched our camp, the banksof the river were marshy, with here and there small lakes of stagnantwater. In these a large number of swans, with wild geese and otheraquatic birds, were swimming and feeding.
Of course our guns were put in requisition, and we succeeded in killinga brace of swans, with a grey goose (Anser _Canadensis_), and a pair ofducks. The swans were very large ones--of the Trumpeter species--andone of them was cooked for supper. It was in excellent condition, andfurnished a meal for the whole of our party! The other swan, with thegoose and ducks, were stowed away for another occasion.
While "discussing" the flesh of this great and noble bird, we alsodiscussed many of the points in its natural history.
"White as a swan" is a simile old as language itself. It would, nodoubt, puzzle an Australian, used to look upon those beautiful andstately birds as being of a very different complexion. The simile holdsgood, however, with the North-American species, all three of which--forthere are three of them--are almost snow-white.
We need not describe the form or general appearance of the swan. Theseare familiar to every one. The long, upright, and gracefully-curvingneck; the finely-moulded breast, the upward-tending tail-tip, the light"dip," and easy progression through the water, are points that everybodyhas observed, admired, and remembered. These are common to all birds ofthe genus _Cygnus_, and are therefore not peculiar to the swans ofAmerica.
Many people fancy there are but two kinds of swans--the white and black.It is not long since the black ones have been introduced to generalnotoriety, as well as to general admiration. But there are manydistinct species besides--species differing from each other in size,voice, and other peculiarities. In Europe alone, there are four nativeswans, specifically distinct.
It was long believed that the common American swan (_Cygnus Americanus_)was identical with the common European species, so well-known inEngland. It is now ascertained, however, not only that these two arespecifically distinct, but that in North America there exist two otherspecies, differing from the _Cygnus Americanus_, and from each other.These are the Trumpeter (_Cygnus buccinnator_) and the small swan ofBewick (_Cygnus Bewickii_), also an inhabitant of European countries.
The common American species is of a pure white, with black hill, logs,and feet. A slight tinge of brownish red is found on some individualson the crown of the head, and a small patch of orange-yellow extendsfrom the angles of the mouth to the eye. On the base of the bill is afleshy tubercle or knob, and the upper mandible is curved at the tip.
The young of this species are of a bluish-grey colour, with more of thebrown-red tinge upon the head. The naked yellow patch, extending fromthe angles of the mouth to the eye, in the young birds, is covered withfeathers, and their bills are flesh-coloured. This description answersin every respect for the swan of Bewick; but the latter species is onlythree-fourths the size of the former; and, besides, it has only eighteentail feathers, while the American swan has twenty. Their note is alsoentirely unlike.
The "Trumpeter" is different from either. He is the largest, beingfrequently met with of nearly six feet in length, while the common swanrarely exceeds five. The bill of the Trumpeter is not tuberculated; andthe yellow patch under the eye is wanting. The bill, legs, and feet areentirely black. All the rest is white, with the exception of the head,which is usually tinged with chestnut or red-brown. When young, he isof a greyish-white, with a yellow mixture, and the head of deeperred-brown. His tail feathers are twenty-four in number; but there is amaterial difference between him and his congeners in the arrangement ofthe windpipe. In the Trumpeter this enters a protuberance that standsout on the dorsal aspect of the sternum, which is wanting in both theother kinds. It may be that this arrangement has something to do withhis peculiar note, which differs altogether from that of the others. Itis much fuller and louder, and at a distance bears a considerableresemblance to the trumpet or French horn. Hence the trivial name bywhich this species is known to the hunters.
All the American swans are migratory--that is, they pass from north tosouth, every autumn, and back again from south to north in the beginningof spring.
The period of their migration is different with the three species. TheTrumpeter is the earliest, preceding all other birds, with the exceptionof the eagles. The _Cygnus Americanus_ comes next; and, lastly, thesmall swans, that are among the very latest of migratory birds.
The Trumpeters seek the north at the breaking up of the ice. Sometimesthey arrive at a point in their journey where this has not taken place.In such cases they fly back again until they reach some river or lakefrom which the ice has disappeared, where they remain a few days, andwait the opening of the waters farther north. When they are thusretarded and sent back, it is always in consequence of some unusual andunseasonable weather.
The swans go northward to breed. Why they do so is a mystery. Perhapsthey feel more secure in the inhospitable wastes that lie within theArctic circle. The Trumpeters breed as far south as latitude 61degrees, but most of them retire within the frigid zone.
The small swans do not nest so far south, but pursue their course stillonward to the Polar Sea. Here they build immense nests by raising heapsof peat moss, six feet in length by four in width, and two feet high.In the top of these heaps is situated the nest, which consists of acavity a foot deep, and a foot and a half in diameter.
The Trumpeters and American swans build in marshes and the islands oflakes. Where the muskrat (_Fiber zibethicus_) abounds, his dome-shapeddwelling--at that season, of course, deserted--serves often as thebreeding-place boll? for the swans and wild geese. On the top of thisstructure, isolated in the midst of great marshes, these birds aresecure from all their enemies--the eagle excepted.
The eggs of the Trumpeter are very large, one of them being enough tomake a good meal for a man. The eggs of the American species aresmaller and of a greenish appearance, while those of the Bewick swan arestill smaller and of a brownish-white colour, with a slight clouding ofdarker hue.
Six or seven eggs is the usual "setting." The cygnets, when half orfull-grown, are esteemed good eating, and are much sought after by thehunters and Indians of the fur countries.
When the cygnets are full-grown, and the frost makes its appearance uponthe lakes and rivers of the hyperborean regions, the swans begin toshift southwards. They do not migrate directly, as in the spring, buttake more time on their journey, and remain longer in the countriesthrough which they pass. This no doubt arises from the fact that adifferent motive or instinct now urges them. In the spring they areunder the impulse of philo-progenitiveness. Now they range from lake tolake and stream to stream in search only of food. Again, as in thespring, the Trumpeters lead the van--winging their way to the greatlakes, and afterwards along the Atlantic coast, and by the line of theMississippi, to the marshy shores of the Mexican Sea.
It may be remarked that this last-mentioned species--the Trumpeter--israre upon the Atlantic coast, where the common swan is seen in greatestplenty. Again, the Trumpeter does not appear on the Pacific or by theColombia River, where the common swan is met with, but the latter isthere outnumbered by the small species (_Cygnus Bewickii_) in the ratioof five to one. This last again is not known in the fur countries ofthe interior, where the _Cygnus Americanus_ is found, but where theTrumpeter exists in greatest numbers. Indeed the skins of the Trumpeterare those which are mostly exported by the Hudson's Bay Company, andwhich form an important article of their commerce.
The swan is eagerly hunted by the Indians who inhabit the fur countries.Its skin brings a good price from the traders, and its quills arevaluable. Besides, the flesh is a con
sideration with these people,whose life, it must be borne in mind, is one continuous struggle forfood; and who, for one-half the year, live upon the very verge ofstarvation.
The swan, therefore, being a bird that weighs between twenty and thirtypounds, ranks among large game, and is hunted with proportionate ardour.Every art the Indian can devise is made use of to circumvent thesegreat birds, and snares, traps, and decoys of all kinds are employed inthe pursuit.
But the swans are among the shyest of God's creatures. They fly sorapidly, unless when beating against the wind, that it requires apractised shot to hit them on the wing. Even when moulting theirfeathers, or when young, they can escape--fluttering over the surface ofthe water faster than a canoe can be paddled.
The most usual method of hunting them is by snares. These are set inthe following manner:--
A lake or river is chosen, where it is known the swans are in the habitof resting for some time on their migration southward--for this is theprincipal season of swan-catching.
Some time before the birds make their appearance, a number of wickerhedges are constructed, running perpendicularly out from the bank, andat the distance of a few yards from each other. In the spaces between,as well as in openings left in the fences themselves, snares are set.These snares are made of the intestines of the deer, twisted into around shape, and looped. They are placed so that several snares mayembrace the opening, and the swans cannot pass through without beingcaught.
The snare is fastened to a stake, driven into the mud with sufficientfirmness to hold the bird when caught and struggling. That the snaremay not be blown out of its proper place by the wind, or carried astrayby the current, it is attached to the wattles of the hedge by somestrands of grass. These, of course, are easily broken, and give way themoment a bird presses against the loop.
The fences or wattle-hedges are always constructed projecting out fromthe shore--for it is known that the swans must keep close in to the landwhile feeding. Whenever a lake or river is sufficiently shallow to makeit possible to drive in stakes, the hedges are continued across it fromone side to the other.
Swans are also snared upon their nests. When a nest is found, the snareis set so as to catch the bird upon her return to the eggs. Thesebirds, like many others, have the habit of entering the nest on oneside, and going out by the other, and it is upon the entrance side thatthe snare is set.
The Indians have a belief that if the hands of the persons setting thesnare be not clean, the bird will not approach it, but rather desert hereggs, even though she may have been hatching them for some time.
It is, indeed, true that this is a habit of many birds, and may be so ofthe wild swan. Certain it is that the nest is always reconnoitred bythe returning bird with great caution, and any irregularity appearingabout it will render her extremely shy of approaching it.
Swans are shot, like other birds, by "approaching" them under cover. Itrequires very large shot to kill them--the same that is used for deer,and known throughout America as "buck-shot." In England this size ofshot is termed "swan shot."
It is difficult to get within range of the wild swan, he is by nature ashy bird; and his long neck enables him to see over the sedge thatsurrounds him. Where there happens to be no cover--and this isgenerally the case where he haunts--it is impossible to approach him.
Sometimes the hunter floats down upon him with his canoe hidden by agarniture of reeds and bushes. At other times he gets near enough inthe disguise of a deer or other quadruped--for the swan, like most wildbirds, is less afraid of the lower animals than of man.
During the spring migration, when the swan is moving northward, thehunter, hidden under some rock, bank, or tree, frequently lures him fromhis high flight by the imitation of his well-known "hoop." This doesnot succeed so well in the autumn.
When the swans arrive prematurely on their spring journey, they resortsometimes in considerable flocks to the springs and waterfalls, allother places being then ice-bound. At this time the hunters concealingthemselves in the neighbourhood, obtain the desired proximity, and dealdestruction with their guns.
A-- related an account of a swan hunt by torch-light, which he had madesome years before.
"I was staying some days," said he, "at a remote, settlement upon one ofthe streams that run into the Red river of the north, it was in theautumn season, and the Trumpeter-swans had arrived in the neighbourhoodon their annual migration to the south. I had been out several timesafter them with my gun, but was unable to get a shot at them inconsequence of their shyness. I had adopted every expedient I couldthink of--calls, disguises, and decoys--but all to no purpose. Iresolved, at length, to try them by torch-light.
"It so happened that none of the hunters, at the settlement had everpractised this method; but as most of them had succeeded, by some meansor other, in decoying and capturing several swans by other means, myhunter-pride was touched, and I was most anxious to show that I couldkill swans as well as they. I had never seen Swans shot by torch-light,but I had employed the plan for killing deer, as you already know, and Iwas determined to make a trial of it upon the swans.
"I set secretly about it, resolved to steal a march upon my neighbours,if possible. My servant alone was admitted into my confidence, and weproceeded to make the necessary arrangements.
"These were precisely similar to those already described in my limit ofthe long-tails, except that the canoe, instead of being `a dug-out,' wasa light craft of birch-bark, such as are in use among the Chippowas andother Indians of the northern countries. The canoe was obtained from asettler, and tilled with torch-wood and other necessary articles, butthese were clandestinely put on board.
"I was now ready, and a dark night was all that was wanted to enable meto carry out my plan.
"Fortunately I soon obtained this to my heart's satisfaction. A nightarrived as dark as Erebus; and with my servant using the paddle, wepushed out and shot swiftly down stream.
"As soon as we had cleared the `settlement,' we lit our pine-knots inthe frying-pan. The blaze refracted from the concave and blackenedsurface of the bark, cast a brilliant light over the semicircle ahead ofus, at the same time that we, behind the screen of birch-bark, were hidin utter darkness. I had heard that the swans, instead of beingfrightened by torch-light, only became amazed, and even at times curiousenough to approach it, just as the deer and some other animals do. Thisproved to be correct, as we had very soon a practical illustration ofit.
"We had not gone a mile down the river when we observed several whiteobjects within the circle of our light; and paddling a little nearer, wesaw that they were swans. We could distinguish their long, uprightnecks; and saw that they had given up feeding, and were gazing withwonder at the odd object that was approaching them.
"There were five of them in the flock; and I directed my servant topaddle towards that which seemed nearest, and to use his oar with asmuch silence as possible. At the same time I looked to the caps of mydouble-barrelled gun.
"The swans for a time remained perfectly motionless, sitting high in thewater, with their long necks raised far above the surface. Theyappeared to be more affected by surprise than fear.
"When we had got within about a hundred yards of them, I saw that theybegan to move about, and close in to one another; at the same time washeard proceeding from them a strange sound resembling very much thewhistle of the fallow deer. I had heard of the singing of the swan, asa prelude to its death, and I hoped that which now reached my ears was asimilar foreboding.
"In order to make it so, I leaned forward, levelled my double-barrel--both barrels being cocked--and waited the _moment_.
"The birds had `clumped' together, until their long serpent-like neckscrossed each other. A few more noiseless strokes of the paddle broughtme within reach, and aiming for the heads of three that `lined,' Ipulled both triggers at once.
"The immense recoil flung me back, and the smoke for a moment preventedus from seeing the effect.
"As soon as it h
ad been wafted aside, our eyes were feasted by the sightof two large white objects floating down the current, while a third,evidently wounded, struggled along the surface, and beating the waterinto foam with its broad wings.
"The remaining two had risen high into the air, and were heard utteringtheir loud trumpet-notes as they winged their flight through the darkheavens.
"We soon bagged our game, both dead and wounded, and saw that they werea large `gander' and two young birds.
"It was a successful beginning; and having replenished our torch, wecontinued to float downward in search of more. Half a mile farther on,we came in sight of three others, one of which we succeeded in killing.
"Another `spell' of paddling brought us to a third flock, out of which Igot one for each barrel of my gun; and a short distance below Isucceeded in killing a pair of the grey wild geese.
"In this way we kept down the river for at least ten miles I shouldthink, killing both swans and geese as we went. Indeed, the novelty ofthe thing, the wild scenery through which we passed--rendered more wildand picturesque by the glare of the torch--and the excitement ofsuccess, all combined to render the sport most attractive; and but thatour `pine-knots' had run out, I would have continued it until morning.
"The failure of these at length brought our shooting to a termination,and we were compelled to put about, and undertake the much lesspleasant, and much more laborious, task, of paddling ten milesup-stream. The consciousness, however, of having performed a greatfeat--in the language of the Canadian hunters, a grand `_coup_,' madethe labour seem more light, and we soon arrived at the settlement, andnext morning triumphantly paraded our game-bag in front of our `lodge.'
"Its contents were twelve trumpeter-swans, besides three of the`hoopers.' We had also a pair of Canada geese; a snow-goose, and threebrant,--these last being the produce of a single shot.
"The hunters of the settlement were quite envious, and could notunderstand what means I had employed to get up such a `game-bag.' Iintended to have kept that for some time a secret; but the frying-panand the piece of blackened bark were found, and these betrayed mystratagem; so that on the night after, a dozen canoes, with torches attheir bows, might have been seen floating down the waters of thestream."