THE TRUMPETER SWAN. 573 



Of the nesting habits little further need be said, since the birds are 

 known to us only as migrants. They breed principally in the Hudson Bay 

 region, and upon grassy islands and river margins within the Arctic Circle. 

 In winter they migrate south into the middle districts of the United States, 

 rarely touching salt water on either side (except it be Chesapeake Bay and 

 the South Atlantic Coast), and never, it is said, reaching the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Latterly they are more plentiful during winter upon the secluded lakes of 

 Oregon and California, but are rapidly diminishing in numbers in the East. 

 The swan-down traffic of the Hudson Bay Company in the North, and the 

 incessant persecution on the part of lubberly pot-hunters in the South, will 

 doubtless compass the destruction of this noble bird within another gen- 

 eration. 



No. 274. 

 TRUMPETER SWAN. 



A. O. U. No. 181. Olor buccinator ( Rich. ). 



Description. — Similar to preceding species, but larger; bill and lores entirely 

 black. Length 60.00-66.00 ( 1524.-1676.4) ; extent about 8 feet; wing 24.00 

 (609.6) ; tail 9.00 (228.6) ; bill 4.50 (114.3) ; tarsus 4.40 ( .111.8) ; middle toe and 

 claw 6.00 (152.4). 



Recognition Marks. — As in preceding species. Distinguished from it by 

 absence of yellow on lore, and by nostril in basal half of bill. 



Nesting. — Like that of preceding species, but eggs a little larger. Av. size, 

 4.46 x 2.92 ( 1 13.3 x 74.2). Does not breed in Ohio. 



General Range. — Chiefly the interior of North America from the Gulf Coast 

 to the Fur Countries, breeding from Iowa and the Dakotas northward ; west to 

 the Pacific Coast; rare or casual on the Atlantic. 



Range in Ohio. — Rare migrant ; two or three recent records. 



THE Trumpeter Swan is the larger, as it is hereabouts, the rarer, bird. 

 Audubon tells of one which was nearly ten feet in alar expanse, and which 

 weighed above thirty-eight pounds. The names, "Whistler" and "Trumpeter" 

 are not meant to express a difference in kind in the notes of the two birds, so 

 much as a difference in volume. The Whistler blows a post-horn and the 

 Trumpeter a trombone. The preeminence of the latter as a musician is due 

 to the fact that lie keeps an extra ceil of wind-pipe neatly tucked away within 

 a convenient hollow of his breast-bone. 



Altho this Swan has been found breeding as far south as Iowa, it resorts 

 during summer chiefly to the high north, and is known to us only as a rare 

 migrant. 



