134 AMERICAN SWAN. 



ties of examining recent specimens of the Wild Swan, C.ferus, as many 

 of these birds were offered for sale in the markets. A single glance at this 

 Swan was sufficient to satisfy me that it had never been found in North 

 America ; whilst Bewick's Swan is always so much smaller in all its 

 parts than any of the species here mentioned, that it cannot well be 

 mistaken for any of them ; and I feel almost quite confident that it has 

 not hitherto been discovered in America, any more than the Whistling 

 Swan, C. musicus of Bechstein, Anas Cygnus of Latham, although this 

 latter has a place in the Synopsis of the Prince of Musignano. 



Dr TowNSEND has sent me a fine specimen of Cygnus Americanus pro- 

 cured on the Columbia River, where it is called by the Chinook In- 

 dians Hiass-thoop-halakala, and corresponding exactly with one of my 

 specimens which was shot near Baltimore. He states that it is much 

 more abundant there in the autumn and winter than C. Buccinator, and 

 thus corroborates the statement of Lewis and Clarke as to the latter 

 being less numerous than the other, in the proportion of one to five. 



Captain Lyon describes the nest of the Common American Swan 

 as built of moss-peat, nearly six feet long, four and three-quarters 

 wide, and two feet high exteriorly ; the cavity a foot and a half in 

 diameter. The eggs were brownish- white, slightly clouded with a 

 darker tint. 



I have never observed any Swans of this species along the At- 

 lantic coast, or on the rivers that open upon it, beyond Cape Hatte- 

 ras in North Carolina ; and although they are very numerous on the 

 waters of the Chesapeake Bay and the streams adjacent, as well as 

 in other parts of the Middle Districts, I am yet of opinion that the 

 great body of them spend the winter about the Columbia River, ex- 

 tending their autumnal migrations westward, along the shores of the 

 Pacific Ocean, into California, and that the columns formed by these 

 birds when about to leave their breeding grounds in high latitudes, di- 

 vide into parties, of which the less numerous bands make their way 

 from certain points as yet unknown, towards our Middle Districts, while 

 the rest are perhaps following the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. 



When travelling to a distance they proceed at a great height, with 

 a steady and well-sustained flight, though by no means so rapid as 

 that of the Trumpeter Swan, this difference probably arising from 

 the greater weight and alar extent of the latter. They usually move 

 in long lines forming the acute angle of a baseless triangle, the leader 



