TRUMPETER SWAN. 115 



A portion of the forehead about half an inch in length, and the 

 space intervening between the bill and the eye, are bare. Plu- 

 mage dense, soft, and elastic ; on the head and neck the feathers 

 oblong, acuminate ; on the other parts in general broadly ovate and 

 rounded, on the back short and compact. Wings long and broad, the 

 anterior protuberance of the first phalangeal bone very prominent ; 

 primaries curved, stiff, tapering to an obtuse point ; the second longest, 

 exceeding the first by half an inch, and the third by a quarter of an 

 inch ; secondaries very broad and rounded, some of the inner rather 

 pointed. Tail very short, graduated, of twenty-four stiffish, mode- 

 rately broad, rather pointed feathers, of which the middle exceeds the 

 lateral by two inches and a quarter. 



Bill and feet black, the outer lamellate edges of the lower man- 

 dible, and the inside of the mouth, yellowish flesh-colom-. The plu- 

 mage is pure white, excepting the upper part of the head, which varies 

 from brownish-red to white, apparently without reference to age or 

 sex, as in Cygnus Americanus and Anser hyperhoreus. 



Length to end of tail 68 inches ; bill along the ridge 4||, from the 

 eye to the tip 6, along the edge of lower mandible 4:^^ ; breadth of 

 upper mandible near the base Ij^g, near the end 1|| ; wing from flexure 

 27 ; tail ^ ; tarsus 4:^^ ; first toe \% its claw ^^ ; second toe 4:^^, its 

 claw 1 ; third toe 6, its claw 1^'| ; fourth toe 5^^, its claw [^. 



