BIRDS OF INDIANA. 641 



species. The latest record for the State is the sceond specimen noted 

 in Dekalb County, April 1, 1890. (H. W. McBride.) 



Formerly, when these birds were more abundant, they migrated in 

 flocks of twenty or thirty, and sometimes as many as fifty, high in air in 

 two converging lines, like a flock of Canada Geese. It is said there is 

 not the noticeable movement of the wings as with geese, yet when 

 traveling at their ordinary gait, with the wind in their favor, it is esti- 

 mated they travel at least a hundred miles an hour. Like Wild Geese, 

 they move regardless of the trend of water courses. In winter they are 

 said to be very common some years on the south Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts. Mr. Ball notes that they reach the Yukon about May 1, and 

 says they descend that stream instead of going up it, as most 

 of the geese do at this season. Mr. E. W. Nelson notes his experience 

 in finding a nest of this swan. "On June 14, 1880, a swan was seen 

 flying from the side of a small pond on the marsh near St. Michaels, 

 and a close search finally revealed the nest. The eggs were completely 

 hidden in loose moss, which covered the ground about the spot and in 

 which the bird had made a depression by plucking up the moss and 

 arranging it for the purpose. The site was so artfully chosen and 

 prepared that I passed the spot in my search, and one of my native 

 hunters coming close behind, called me back, and thrusting his stick 

 in the moss, exposed the eggs." (Nat. Hist. Coll. in Alaska, p. 92.) 



-59. (181). Olor buccinator (RICH.). 



Trumpeter Swan. 



Pure white; head, sometimes neck and lower parts, stained with 

 rusty; feet, bill and lores, black, latter without yellow spot. 



Length, 60.00-66.00; extent, 96.00-near 120.00; wing, 21.00-27.50; 

 bill, 4.30-4.70; tarsus, 4.54-4.95. 



RANGE. Chiefly the interior of North America, from the Gulf coast 

 to the fur countries, breeding from Iowa and the JDakotas (formerly 

 Indiana) northward; west to the Pacific Coast; rare or casual on the 

 Atlantic. 



Nest, on high dry ground near water, of grass and feathers. Eggs, 

 2-6; white; 4.46 by 2.9.2, 



Rare migrant and probably winter resident; not seen as often as last 

 species. Formerly summer resident and bred. 



Its breeding range extends farther south than ijie last mentioned 



swan, reaching into the United States as far as Iowa and Minnesota, 



and extending from northwestern Hudson Bay (Hearne) to the 



Pacific Coast and northward to Alaska and beyond the Arctic Circle 



41 GEOL 



