74 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



Their sub-family name is Cygnince. The trumpeter swan 

 is now almost extinct in the United States. One day, early 

 in March, 1920, I was crossing the campus of the Nash- 

 ville Agricultural Normal Institute at Madison, Tennes- 

 see, when I was startled by the almost forgotten note of 

 this bird. Scanning the sky, I located two trumpeter 

 swans. They came almost directly over my head and passed 

 out of sight to the northwest. They seemed almost like 

 phantom birds, echoes from the dim past. I have often 

 wondered where these two birds came from and where 

 they were going. Their summer feeding grounds changed, 

 their winter feeding grounds no longer safe, the race has 

 all but given up the struggle. It is to be hoped that these 

 lone wanderers found safety in some place, and that they 

 may live long and become the progenitors of a large fam- 

 ily, for the trumpeter swan is one of the most beautiful 

 of our many valuable birds. 



We have in America another wild swan that is smaller 

 than the trumpeter swan. It is known as the whistling 

 swan. Many of the swans we see in our city parks are of 

 neither kind, but are of European origin. 



