78 SWANS 



to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico; from all the southern portion of its 

 breeding range toward the shores of the Arctic Ocean; and from the At- 

 lantic and Pacific slopes toward the interior. Now it has almost disap- 

 peared from the Gulf States. A swan seen at any time of the year in 

 most parts of the United States is the signal for every man with a gun to 

 pursue it .... the bird is pursued, even in its farthest northern haunts, 

 by the natives, who capture it in summer, when it has molted its pri- 

 maries and is unable to fly . . . . The large size of this bird and its con- 

 spicuousness have served, as in the case of the Whooping Crane, to make 

 it a shining mark, and the trumpe tings that were once heard over the 

 breadth of a great continent, as the long converging lines drove on from 

 zone to zone, will soon be heard no more." 



Of the behaviour of this species, Audubon (1840) says: "The flight 

 of the Trumpeter Swan is firm, at times greatly elevated and sustained. 

 It passes through the air by regular beats, in the same manner as geese, 

 the neck stretched to its full length, as are the feet, which project beyond 

 the tail .... If bound to a distant place, they form themselves in 

 angular lines, and probably the leader of the flock is one of the oldest of 

 the males; but of this I am not at all sure, as I have seen at the head of a 

 line a gray bird, which must have been a young one of that year .... 



"When swimming unmolested the swan shows the body buoyed up; 

 but when apprehensive of danger, it sinks considerably lower. If resting 

 and basking in the sunshine, it draws one foot expanded curiously toward 

 the back, and in that posture remains often for half an hour at a time 

 . . . Unless during the courting season, or while passing by its mate, I 

 never saw a swan with the wings raised and expanded, as it is alleged 

 they do, to profit by the breeze that may blow to assist their progress; 

 and yet I have pursued some in canoes to a considerable distance, and 

 that without overtaking them, or even obliging them to take wing." 



Of the problem of the conservation of the Trumpeter, and its pres- 

 ent status, Allan Brooks (1934) says: This swan, "one of the largest liv- 

 ing native birds of North America, presents a problem for its perpetua- 

 tion that requires all the intelligence and effort that conservationists can 

 concentrate on it. . . .1 greatly doubt the stories of the former abundance 

 of the Trumpeter. Many of these, as well as some of the records of its 

 recent capture, are based on the old diagnosis for distinguishing the two 

 species. Formerly all adult swans that did not show a yellow mark on 

 the bill were called Trumpeters. Now we know that many adult Whis- 

 tlers have an all-black bill, and all other distinctions are more or less 

 unreliable, except the different characters of the windpipe and sternum 

 [described under "Specimen Identification"] ... .The ranges of the 

 two species are very different. Simply put, the Whistler summers as far 

 north as he can and winters as far south, while the Trumpeter breeds as 

 far south as he can find the necessary solitude and winters precariously 

 as far north as he can find open fresh water. 



"Outside of a few pairs in Yellowstone National Park, the main 

 stronghold of the Trumpeter now is in northern British Columbia. Pos- 



