LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 297 



A Kootenai Indian woman, while hunting with her husband and father-in- 

 law, in the year 18S9, saw a pair of swans with two cygnets on a small lake 

 toward the headwaters of the South Fork of the Flathead River. Shortly- 

 after this she took two eggs from a swan's nest by the same lake, but can 

 not give the exact year, although it was probably 1890. 



The latest information I have comes in a letter from M. P. Skin- 

 ner, of Yellowstone Park, and is very encouraging; he writes: 



Early in the summer of 1919, I noted a swan in the vicinity of Heart Lake. 

 A little later the nest was found on a low island in a lagoon northeast of 

 Lewis Lake, containing five whitish eggs, the nest being made of leaves and 

 grass. On August 14 I returned and then found the tail and flight feathers 

 molted by the adults, but the birds were too far away and too wary to 

 determine the species. On September 6, I again visited this section and 

 found five trumpeter swan (the two parents and three young so nearly grown 

 as to be able to fly well). While I did not feel justified in sacrificing one of 

 these rare birds, there can be no mistake as to identification. I have been 

 familiar since November of 1912 with both of our swans, the whistling swan 

 occuring in comparatively large numbers from October 31 (earliest date ever 

 noted by me) to May 3, the latest date. I saw' the trumpeter swans several 

 times, and once within an estimated distance of 50 yards under a pair of 

 12 X binoculars. Bill and lores of all the birds lacked the yellow spot; they 

 were markedly superior in size to the whistling swans ; and their cries were 

 unmistakable. The breeding range of the smaller swan is given as " far 

 northward and probably in British Columbia," whereas the trumpeter has been 

 known to breed as far south as Iowa. 



Mr. H. M. Smith, United States Fish Commissioner, reports that on July 

 16, 1919, he visited a small, unnamed lake lying south of Delusion Lake and 

 found there a pair of swans with six cygnets about the size of teal swim- 

 ming actively about. Mr. Smith could not identify these as buccinator, but 

 in view of my own discovery I believe they were of this variety. 



t^ggs. — The trumpeter swan has been said to lay from 2 to 10 

 eggs in a set; the latter number must be very unusual and was 

 probably the product of two birds; probablj^ the usual set con- 

 sists of from 4 to 6 eggs. Mr. Cameron says that the number of 

 eggs varies from 2 to 8 according to the age of the birds and other 

 circumstances, the smaller sets being laid by the younger birds; at 

 least this is the general opinion among the Indians. The eggs are 

 like those of the whistling swan, but larger. In shape they vary 

 from elliptical ovate or elliptical oval to nearly elliptical. The 

 shell is rough or granulated and more or less pitted. The color is 

 creamy white or dull white, becoming much nest stained. The meas- 

 urements of 25 eggs, in various collections, average 110 by 71.1 

 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 119.5 by 

 76, 115 by 76.5, and 101 by 62.8 millimeters. 



Young. — P. M. Silloway (1903) records the following incident 

 which a friend of his witnessed in Montana : 



A friend told me of seeing an old swan and a young one upon the 

 " Highland " lakes. The two were in flight between the lakes, and the cygnet 



