WHISTLING SWANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 July 1939, Page 7

WHISTLING SWANS

CANADIAN PROTECTIVE

MEASURES

TORONTO

Of several hundred whistling swans which landed on the river above Niagara Falls about the middle of March, not more than twenty were swept over the falls. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which carried out patrols to prevent molestation of the birds, report that nine live swans were seen on the ice below the falls, of which three died and one was swept under the ice. Most of the birds were able to continue on their northward flight to the nesting grounds in the Canadian Arctic.

Long famous as a Mecca for honeymooners from all parts of North America. Niagara Falls is on one of the principal migration routes for waterfowl. The birds land on the watei above the falls to rest and are swept down by the swift current almost tc the brink of the falls. When the swans discover their danger they struggle into the air and fly up-stream only to land exhausted on the treacherous waters which sweep them into danger again. The whistling swan is protected a! all times by the Migratory Birds Convention. and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police co-operate with officers of the Niagara Parks Commission and provincial game wardens to prevent the birds from being molested by persons attracted to the area by the swans’ plight.