106 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



COMMON CHARACTERS. Adults with whole plumage pure white, the head often stained 

 with rusty; bill either entirely black, or black and yellow; iris dark brown; feet blackish. 

 Young ashy, sometimes tinged with brownish, the bill flesh-color (or at least partly of this 

 color) and feet grayish or whitish. 



1. 0. columbianus. Tail-feathers usually 20 ; bill not longer than the head, the anterior 



end of the nostrils considerably anterior to the middle of the maxilla; naked loral 

 skin usually with a yellowish oblong spot. 



2. 0. buccinator. Tail- feathers usually 24; bill longer than the head, the anterior end of 



the nostrils reaching to about the middle of the maxilla; naked loral skin entirely 

 black. Size considerably larger. 



They are both found, at one time or another, entirely across 

 the continent, though O. hucd/mtur is rare on the Atlantic coast. 



Olor buccinator (Rich.) 



TKUMPETEK SWAN. 



Cygnus buccinator RICH. F. B.-A. ii, 1831, 464 (Hudson Bay). NUTT. Man. ii, 1834,370. 

 AUD. Orn. Biog. iv, 1838, 536: v, 1839,114, pis. 406, 376; Synop. 1839, 74: B. Am. vi, 1843, 

 219, pi. 382, 383. BAIRD, B. N. Am. 1858, 758; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859. No. 562. COUES, 

 Key, 1872, 281 ; Check List, 1873, No. 476; 2d ed. 1882, No. 688; Birds N. W. 1874,544. 

 KIDGW. Orn. 40th Par. 1877, 619. 



Olor buccinator WAGL. Isis, 1732, 1234. RIDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 589; Man. N. 

 Am. B. 1887, 120; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. iii, 1882, 216. -B. B. & E. Water B. N. Am. i 

 1884. 430,-A. 0. U. Check List, 1886. No. 181. 



Ctygnws^asmoj-eiHiNCKS.Proe.Linn. Soc.viii, 1864,1 (Toronto); P. Z. S. 1868,211. MOORE, 

 P. Z. S. 1867, 8 (critical). 



HAB. Chiefly the interior of North America, from the Gulf coast to the Fur Countries, 

 breeding from Iowa and Dakota northward; west to the Pacific coast, but rare or casual on 

 the Atlantic. Accidental in England. 



SP. CHAE. Tail usually of 24 feathers; bill longer than the head. Adult: Plumage 

 entirely pure white, the head, sometimes the neck also, or even the entire lower parts, 

 tinged with rusty. Bill, naked lores, legs, and feet, uniform deep black, the "outer lamel- 

 late edges of the lower mandible and the inside of the mouth flesh-color," (AUDUBON); 

 iris brown. Young: "In the winter the young has the bill black, with the middle portion 

 of the ridge, to the length of an inch and a half, light flesh-color, and a large elongated 

 patch of light dull purple on each side ; the edge of the lower mandible and the tongue 

 dull yellowish flesh-color. The eye is dark brown. The feet are dull 'yellowish brown, 

 tinged with olive; the claws brownish black, the webs blackish brown. The upper part 

 of the head and the cheeks are light reddish brown, each feather having toward its ex- 

 tremity a small oblong whitish spot, narrowly margined with dusky ; the throat nearly 

 white, as well as the edge of the lower eyelid. The general color of the upper parts is 

 grayish white, slightly tinged with yellow ; the upper part of the neck marked with spots 

 similar to those on the head." (AUDUBON.) 



Total length, about 58.50 to 68.00 inches ; extent, about 8.00 to nearly 10.00 feet ; wing, 

 21.00-27.25 inches : eulmen (from frontal feathers) 4.34-4.70 ; tarsus, 4.54-4.92 ; middle toe 

 6.00-6.50 ; weight, of adults, about 28 to nearly 40 Ibs. 



The arrangement of the trachea in this species is very different from that in 0. 

 columbianus, in having, besides the horizontal bend, a vertical flexure, occupying a 

 prominent protuberance on the anterior portion of the dorsal aspect of the sternum. 



The Trumpeter Swan is chiefly a transient visitor to Illi- 

 nois, but undoubtedly once bred within the State, since it 



