216 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Olor buccinator (Eich.). 



Trumpeter Swan. 



DiAGN. — The distance from the anterior angle of the eye to the hind 

 border of the nostrils equal to the distance from the latter to the tij) of the 

 bill; color of the bill and lores entirely blacJc. 



Syj<.— 1831.— Cygnus buccinator Rich, in S\v. & Rich. Fauna Bor.-Amer. I, p. 464. 

 1844. — Cyfjnus hucinator Giraud, Birds of Long Island, p. 299. 

 1865. — Cygnus passmori Hincks, Jonrn. Linn. Soc. Zool. VIII, p. 1. 

 1S72.—" Cygnus passmorei Hincks," Coues, Key, N. A. B. p. 281. 

 1876. — Olor passmorii Boucard, Catal. Av. p. 57. 



Note to the Synonymy.— Trot W. Hincks laid before the Linnean 

 Society, on January 21, 1864, the description of a supposed new spe- 

 cies of Swan, Cyynus passmori, from Canada, which could be distin- 

 guished from 0. buccinator EiCH., by several anatomical differences, 

 also, amongst other things, by a smaller size (the whole length from the 

 bill to the end of the tail being 1,295™"', in opposition to 1,524"^'", the 

 distance between the tip of the bill and the hind border of the nostrils 

 51inm^ in opposition to 76'"™) ; also, by faint dirty gray tinge in opposi- 

 tion to buccinatorh generally more or less rust-colored tinge on the 

 head and neck; by the same gray tinge on the inner web and points of 

 the remiges, and by the naked black skin of the lores only reaching 

 to the eyes and not surrounding them. There is, however, reason to 

 suppose, and Mr. Hincks himself expresses strong doubts, that these 

 differences only arise from age. The smaller size, gray tinge on head 

 and wing-feathers, feathering of the skin surrounding the eye, are all 

 features which prove the young age of the bird, and C. xmssmori may 

 therefore be regarded as a young buccinator until the reverse has been 

 demonstrated. 



Though the present species is a very distinct one, and the most remote 

 of the genus to which it lielongs, it has been very difficult to point out 

 a character wJiich will hold good hi birds of all ages. I am not at all 

 acquainted with the quite young bird, but think, however, that the 

 above diagnosis will be sufiQcient even for identification of the younger 

 specimens. 



As both Olor cygnus and bewicMi are easily recognizable by the yellow 

 color of the base of their bills, a nearer comparison only is needed with 

 the 0. columbianus, of which specimens are said to be found which want 

 entirely the yellow spot. I may here remark that I myself never met, 

 amongst the numerous birds of this species which I have examined, a 

 specimen on which I could not detect distinct traces of the spot by a 

 careful inspection. 



Besides the larger size, which is not always sufficient to distinguish 

 the two species, as a comparison of the Tables VII and VIII will show, 

 it has often been stated as a good criterion that buccinator has twenty- 

 four tail feathers in contradistinction to columbianus, which only has 



