2t EEV. W. HINCKS ON CY&NUS PASSMOEI. 



having, like it, the beak, legs, and feet black, and a little colour on 

 the plumage of the head and upper parts of the neck ; but the new 

 species, though our specimen is apparently a mature bird, is con- 

 siderably lighter and smaller in size, and the colour is a light dirty 

 grey, slightly tinged with ferruginous about the crown. The 

 same grey tinge is also seen on the tips and inner webs of the 

 quill-feathers of the wings. The prominence of the forehead be- 

 tween the eyes is subangular; and there is a difference, best 

 expressed by a figure, in the course of the line bounding the beak 

 from the eye to the opening of the mouth. In these remarks, I 

 assume that the name Gygnus buccinator must continue to be given 

 to the Grreat Northern Swan, our commonest species, which, from 

 its peculiar cry, is popularly called the Trtimpeter, notwithstanding 

 that two species have been for a time included under the one name, 

 and that it happens that the sternum and trachea communicated 

 by Sir John E-ichardson to Mr. Yarrell, and by him described and 

 figured in the 17th volume of the Society's ' Transactions ' (pp. 1-4, 

 tab. 1), appear to have belonged to a specimen of the new 

 species, and the very remarkable corresponding parts of the true 

 Gygnus luccinator l-emain, so far as I can ascertain, as yet 

 undescribed. If I am right in conjecturing that the peculiarities 

 to be pointed out in the trachea are immediately connected with 

 the distinguishing cry of the bird which has given cause for the 

 specific name, and in supposing that Sir J. Eichardson's descrip- 

 tion was probably made from a true Trumpeter, though the trachea 

 procured was obtained from one of a species then confounded with 

 it — that at least the preserved specimen referred to by Mr. Yar- 

 rell in his description must have been a Trumpeter — I think I 

 shall be justified in applying the received name to the bird to 

 which it is most appropriate, and bestowing a new one on the 

 smaller species now first distinguished. "When, having carefully 

 noted the wide difference between the sternum and trachea in the 

 two species under comparison, I turned to Mr. Yarrell's figure 

 already referred to, it was with no small surprise that I found it 

 corresponded very nearly with what I took to be the trachea of 

 the new species, instead of that of the true Trumpeter. My first 

 impression was that wrong marks might have been affixed to the spe- 

 cimens, or that I might have confused them, although the com- 

 parative size made this improbable ; but on consulting Mr. Pass- 

 more, he was able to remove all doubt by producing the sternum 

 of a second Trumpeter, procured at the same time with that in my 

 hands ; and, being a female, its agreement with that previously 



