Bewick's swan. 113 



attached to the inner surface of the breast-bone, anterior to 

 the first rib. The course of the muscle on one side may be 

 traced in the first anatomical figure. 



The vignette at the end of this subject represents a front 

 view of a portion of the body of this species of Swan, with 

 the anterior part of the descending windpipe turned aside to 

 show the inner ascending part of it, the muscles of voice, and 

 the tendinous fascia stretched across from one branch of the 

 forked bone or merrythought over to the other, by which both 

 portions are supported. 



Dissection, which proved the distinction between the Hoo- 

 per and Bewick's Swan, has also proved that the two Wild 

 Swans of North America are peculiar to that country, and 

 distinct from the two European Swans. The largest of the 

 North American Swans, still larger than our Hooper, is 

 called Cygmis buccinator, or the Hunter's Swan, by Dr. 

 Richardson, in his Fauna Boreali-Americana, where the mea- 

 surements and other particulars of its history will be found ; 

 and I am indebted to the liberality of Dr. Richardson for a 

 specimen of the very singular organs of voice and the sternum 

 of this species, which will be found described and figured in 

 the seventeenth volume of the Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society. 



The second species of North American Swan was described 

 by Dr. Sharpless, in the fifth volume of the American Jour- 

 nal of Science and Arts, under the name of Cygnus Amert- 

 camis ; it has also been described more recently by Mr. 

 Audubon, in the fifth volume of his Ornithological Biography. 

 I have been presented by both these gentlemen with the 

 organ of voice and the sternum from several examples of this 

 second species of American Swan, which, however, in some 

 respects, internally as well as externally, resembling our Be- 

 wick's Swan, is said to attain a size and weight almost equal 

 to those of our Hooper ; the whole length is recorded as 



VOL. III. I 



