300 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



weather increased, or return if it diminished; for it has appeared to me, that 

 neither very intense cold nor great heat suit them so well as a medium tem- 

 perature. I have traced the winter migrations of this species as far southward 

 as Texas, where it is abundant at times. 



Whilst encamped in the Tawapatee Bottom, when on a fur-trading voyage, 

 our keel boat was hauled close under the eastern shoi-e of the Mississippi, and 

 our valuables, for I then had a partner in trade, were all disembarked. The 

 great stream was itself so firmly frozen that we were daily in the habit of 

 crossing it from shore to shore. No sooner did the gloom of night become 

 discernible through the gray twilight than the loud-sounding notes of hundreds 

 of trumpeters would burst on the ear ; and as I gazed over the ice-bound river, 

 flocks after flocks would be seen coming from afar and in various directions, 

 and alighting about the middle of the stream opposite to our encampment. After 

 pluming themselves awhile they would quietly drop their bodies on the ice. 

 and through the dim light I yet could observe the graceful curve of their 

 necks, as they gently turned them backward, to allow their heads to repose 

 upon the softest and warmest of pillows. Just a dot of black as it were could 

 be observed on the snowy mass, and that dot was about half an inch of the' 

 base of the upper mandible, thus exposed, as I think, to enable the bird to 

 breathe with ease. Not a single individual could I ever observe among them 

 to act as a sentinel, and I have since doubted whether their acute sense of 

 hearing was not sufficient to enable them to detect the approach of their enemies. 

 The day quite closed by darkness, no more could be seen until the next dawn ; 

 but as often as the bowlings of the numerous wolves that prowled through 

 the surrounding woods were heard, the clanging cries of the swans would 

 fill the air. If the morning proved fair, the flocks would rise on their feet, 

 trim their plumage, and as they started with wings extended, as if racing in 

 rivalry, the pattering of their feet would come on the ear like the noise of 

 great muffled drums, accompanied by the loud and clear sounds of their voice. 

 On running 50 yards or so to windward, they would all be on wing. If the 

 weather was thick, drizzly, and cold, or if there were indications of a fall of 

 snow, they would remain on the ice, walking, standing, or lying down, until 

 symptoms of better weather became apparent, when they Avould all start off. 



Mr. Hoyes Lloyd has recently written to me about a flock of wild 

 trumpeter swans that have for several years been spending the winter 

 in a lake in southern British Columbia under the protection of the 

 Canadian National Parks Branch. So there is hope that the species 

 may survive. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Probably still breeds sparingly in the wilder 

 portions of Wyoming (Yellowstone Park), western Montana, 

 Alberta, British Columbia (Skeena Kiver), and northwestern Can- 

 ada. Has bred in the past east to James Bay (Norway House), 

 Manitoba (Shoal Lake, 1893 and 1894), Minnesota (Heron Lake,, 

 1883), and Indiana. South to Iowa (Hancock County, 1883), Ne- 

 braska, and Missouri west to British Columbia (Chilcoten) and 

 Alaska (Fort Yukon). 



Winter range. — ^Western United States. South to the Gulf of 

 Mexico and southern California. North to west-central British 



