144: 



SWANS. 



i W^HOOPING SWAN, O. cygnus. 60.00; basal por- 

 tion of bill, including nostrils, yellow; nostrils, in center of 

 bill. I^orthern parts of eastern hemisphere; occasional in 

 southern Greenland. 



2. WHISTLING SWAN, O. columbianus. Differs from 

 1 in being a little smaller and having only a small spot of yel- 

 low at base of bill. Breeds far north migrating south in au- 

 tumn to winter from the Chesapeake to the Gulf coast ; very 

 rare on the Atlantic coast north of Maryland. 



3. TRUMPETER SWAN, O. buccinator. Larger, 65.00; 

 bill, wholly black with nostrils nearer base; tail feathers, 

 usually 24. Breeds in the interior of N. A. from Iowa north- 

 ward ; casual on the Atlantic coast. 



Odoiitog-lossae . 



Large birds with very long necks and legs, webbed toes, 



Fig. 175. 



O, A, a, 1. 1-9. 



and bill abruptly bent in the mid- 

 dle ; partly or wholly scarlet. Fre- 

 quent islands and seaboards in 

 the tropics or subtropics. Cries, 

 sonorous and goose-like. Flight, 

 rapid and direct with rather slow 

 wing-beats, and with outstretched 

 neck and legs. Nests built of 

 marl piled in the form of a trun- 

 cated pyramid ; eggs 1 sometimes 

 2, greenish covered with a chalky 

 incrustation. Young helpless and 

 fed by regurgitation. Food small 

 mollusks which are procured from 

 the bottom of the water by im- 

 mersing the head and inverting it 

 so that the upper mandible is un- 

 derneath. 



