THE WHISTLING SWAN. 571 
depths. When one gets “hot” in this ancient game of hide-the-thimble, the 
most interested pair of birds will single themselves out from the hovering 
throng and prepare for defense. Unless their advances are early discour- 
aged, the boldness of these two will increase until they actually strike the 
intruder on the head, to say nothing of frequent salutations with flying 
shearn. At the same time the characteristic cry, krik, krik,—hoarser and 
deeper than that of the Common Tern, and lacking its nasal resonance—is 
flatted by anger into kra-ack, kra-ack. 
The nests are usually placed upon floating vegetation, or upon bars of 
incipient land at the edge of the bayou—never, in my experience or in that 
of Professor Jones, upon the tops of muskrat houses, either new or old. 
They vary in construction from the almost imperceptible mud hollow, through 
the water-soaked circlet of retaining trash, to the more pretentious high-and- 
dry heap, shown in the illustration. The pale olive-brown eggs, heavily 
spotted and blotched with blackish brown, harmonize so perfectly with their 
surroundings of decaying and mud-spattered vegetation, as almost to elude 
the sight even after being once discovered. 
be Ne SES ELAN ATA TE EEE UTR ERTS KET Da OR IES 
INO= 273° 
WHISTLING SWAN. 
A. O. U. No. 180. Olor columbianus (Ord.). 
Description.—Adult: Entire plumage pure white, the head sometimes tinged 
with rusty ; bill and lores black, the latter usually with a distinct yellow spot near 
eye; feet and legs black. Jmmature: Plumage ashy gray, the head and neck 
tinged with brownish; bill and feet light. Length about 54.00 (1371.6) ; extent 
seven feet; wing 21.25 (539.8) ; tail 8.50 (215.9) ; bill 4.00 (101.6) ; tarsus 3.90 
(99.1) ; middle toe and claw 5.40 (137.2). 
Recognition Marks.—Eagle size; pure white plumage; long neck; small 
yellow spot on lores distinctive for this species. 
