382 BIRDS OF THE NEW YORK CITY REGION 



b. INTRODUCED SPECIES 



MUTE SWAN (Cygnus olor) 



The Mute Swan has been introduced on the Hudson River 

 near Rhinebeck and at the South Side Club near Oakdale, 

 Long Island. On several occasions the young birds have 

 escaped from the latter place, and the Rhinebeck birds have 

 also migrated. It is highly likely that some of the recent 

 reports of Swans from Long Island and Barnegat Bay, New 

 Jersey, refer to such feral Mute Swans, which have been 

 positively identified at Mastic. In any case recent and future 

 sight records of Swans cannot be credited automatically to 

 the Whistling Swan, as was formerly the case. Unfortunately 

 the distinction between the two species is one which requires 

 a closer approach than is ordinarily possible. The Mute 

 Swan has a frontal tubercle or knob, which causes a " dis- 

 torted profile/' and nearly half the bill is reddish orange. 

 The Whistling Swan has a solid black bill and no tubercle. 



Long Island. 



MASTIC. Apparently a rare resident. 

 LONG BEACH. Five birds, doubtless this species, were 

 observed July 17, 1920 (Newbold Herrick). 

 New Jersey. A young bird, picked up exhausted in Elizabeth, 

 October 24, 1916, was erroneously recorded as a Whistling Swan by 

 Mr. Chas. A. Urner, and subsequently corrected. 



SKYLARK (Alauda arvensis) 



Individuals of this species have been liberated from time 

 to time near New York City, and in 1887 a small colony 

 became established near Flatbush, Long Island. This 

 colony was finally destroyed by the advance eastward of the 

 City, and no individual of this species has been observed to 

 my knowledge in ten years. Its introduction has been a 

 failure, and the bird is not really entitled to a place in the 

 A. O. U. Check List. 



