82 NOTES ON THE 



bluish silver-gray of the remaining under parts, the feathers 

 of which have the basal portions bluish gray; axillars and 

 inside of wings showing a darker tint of the same; the gray of 

 the belly passes gradually into white behind, the tail being en- 

 circled all around and concealed by this color; back and wing 

 coverts grayish-blue with slightly paler edges; rump, similar, 

 but darker and more uniform blue, the secondaries have some 

 concealed whitish on the inner webs towards the base. 



Length, 23.50; wing, 12.75; tarsus, 2.26; commissure 1.40. 



Habitat, northern parts of Northern Hemisphere. 



BRANTA NIGRICANS (Lawrence). (174.) 



BLACK BRANT. 



Several stragglers of this Pacific Coast species have been 

 brought in during the past ten years, by parties visiting the 

 Red river valley in the fall shooting season. If they are any- 

 thing more than stragglers, they must still be regarded very 

 rare. Their identity I can vouch for, from a long familiarity 

 with them in Sacramento and banta Clara counties, California. 



specific characters. 



Head, neck, and body anterior to the wings deep black, 

 passing into dark sooty plumbeous on the rest of the body, 

 this color beneath extending nearly to the anus, and above 

 shading insensibly into the black of the rump; middle of the 

 throat with a white patch extending round on the sides, and 

 somewhat streaked with black; no white on the eyelids; sides 

 of rump and base of the tail, with upper and under tail coverts 

 concealing the tail, and space across the anus, white; primary 

 and secondary quills and tail, black; feathers on the sides of 

 the body beneath the wings like the belly, but with white tips. 



Length, 29; wing, 13.80; tarsus, 2,30; commissure, 1.50. 



Habitat, Arctic and Western North America. 



OLOR COLUMBIANUS (Ord). (180.) 

 WHISTLING SWAN. 



Many years ago this species was believed to be a regular 

 summer resident of the Red river valley, and not without rea- 

 son, for they were occasionally met with as late as the tenth 

 of May in spring, and as early as the twentieth of August. 

 But these instances have proved to be very rare, and when 

 they were reported to me some important observations regard- 

 ing their identity were wanted in their later appearance. 

 Having never oDserved them personally, I have been left to the 

 conclusion that they were the young of the Trumpeters, a 



