ANATIDE, SWANS.—GEN. 247. 281 
247. Genus CYGNUS Linneus. 
** Adult plumage entirely white; younger, the head and neck washed with 
rusty brown; still younger, gray or ashy. Bill and feet black. Length 4-5 feet. 
Trumpeter Swan. Tail (normally) of 24 feathers. No yellow spot on 
bill, which is rather longer than the head, the nostrils fairly in its basal half. 
Mississippi Valley, westward’ and northward; Canada (C. passmorei 
Hincks). Sw. and Ricw., Fn. Bor.-Am. ii, 464; Nurr., ii, 370; Aup., 
PEO plSdG4, OOO sD. (OS. ~ sss +. « » «© «© BUCCINATOR. 
Fig. 182. American Swan. 
Whistling Swan. ‘Tail (normally) of 20 feathers. A yellow spot on bill, 
which is not longer than the head; nostrils median. N.Am. C. bewichii 
Sw., Fn. Bor.-Am., 465; C. ferus Nutt., ii, 3663 C. bewickit Nurr., ii, 
372; C. americanus Aup., vi, 226, pl. 384; Bp., 758. . . AMERICANUS. 
Subfamily ANSERINAE. Geese. 
Lores completely feathered; tarsi entirely reticulate. Neck in length between 
that of swans and of ducks; cervical vertebre about 16; body elevated and not so 
much flattened as in the ducks; legs relatively longer; tarsus generally exceeding, 
or at least not shorter than, the middle toe; bill generally rather short, high and 
compressed at base, and tapering to tip, which is less widened and flattened than is 
usual among ducks, and almost wholly occupied by the broad nail. The species 
as a rule are more terrestrial, and walk better, than ducks; they are generally 
herbivorous, although several maritime species (gen. 249, and an allied South 
American group) are animal-feeders, and their flesh is rank. Both sexes attend to 
the young. A notable trait, shared by the swans, is their mode of resenting 
intrusion by hissing with outstretched neck, and striking with the wings. With 
some exceptions the plumage is not so bright and variegated as that of ducks, and 
the speculum is wanting; there is only an annual moult, and no seasonal change of 
plumage; the sexes are generally alike. Most of the geese fall in or very near 
gen. 248 and 250, and are modelled in the likeness of the domestic breeds. ‘The 
more notable exotic forms are:—the Australian Anseranas melanoleuca and 
Cereopsis nove-hollandice, the former having the feet little more than semipalmate, 
the latter scarcely aquatic, with very long legs, much bare above the suffrago, and the 
bill small, very membranous ; the African Plectropterus gambensis, a purplish-black 
KEY TO N. A. BIRDS. 36 
