SWANS 



(Subfamily Cygnince) 



Whistling Swan 



(Olor colunibianus) 



Called also : KU'^mCA'H SWAN 



Length — 55 inches, or a little under 5 feet. 



Male and Female — Entire plumage white; usually a yellow spot 

 between the eyes and nostrils, hut sometimes wanting; 

 bill, legs, and feet black. Immature birds have some brown- 

 ish and grayish washings on parts of their plumage. 



Range — North America, nesting about the Arctic Ocean, and 

 migrating in winter to our southern states and the Gulf of 

 Mexico. Rare on the Atlantic coast north of Maryland; 

 more abundant on the Pacific. 



Season — Winter visitor and spring and autumn migrant, October 

 to April. 



It is impossible for one who has seen only the common mute 

 swans floating about in the artificial lakes of our city parks, 

 while happy children toss them bits of cake and crackers, to 

 imagine the grandeur of a flock of the great whistlers in their 

 wild state. Not far from Chicago such a flock was recently seen 

 in its autumn migration, and as the huge birds rose from the 

 lake into the air, it seemed as if an aerial regatta were being 

 sailed overhead ; the swans, each with a wing-spread of six or 

 seven feet, moving like yachts under full sail in a mirage where 

 water blended with sky and tricked one's vision. The sight is 

 among the most impressive in all nature. It is wonderful ! 



On the Pacific coast, in the interior, down the Mississippi 

 to the gulf states, and up the Atlantic coast from Florida to the 

 Chesapeake, the whistling swans wander between October and 

 April, flying at the rate of one hundred miles an hour, it is 



143 



