THE WHISTLING SWANS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23263, 4 February 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE WHISTLING SWANS

Whistling swans have boon paying an unexpected visit to Montreal. A small flock of this beautiful species of swan came sailing majestically through the blue sky. With their long necks stretched straight out, their great wings steadily beating, and the sun glistening on their immaculate white plumage they wore indeed an unforgettable sight. The swans came down in the Heron He Bird Sanctuary, where they rested for a while before continuing their annual migration south. This is the first occasion for a very long time that thev have come to Montreal. Every year their melodious cry is hf.ard as flocks leave Alaska and scatter as far south as California on the Pacific Ocean and North Carolina on the Atlantic, several of them perishing on their way over the Niagara Falls. The musical notes uttered by these birds (contrasting strangely with the silence that surrounds other swans), have been famous since the time of Homer. As an observer has written of them: " Their combined cries can be heard for three miles or more, and make a grand and melodious concert. I have often sat and listened with the keenest pleasure to the organ-like swell and fall of their notes as they were wafted through the air in rich, full harmony, then sank to a faint murmur, not unlike that of running water."