TRUMPETER SWAN. ^71 



CHAPTER XXX. 



TETJMPBTEE SWAN. 



( Qygnus Buccinator.') 



Adult JfaZe.-^Bill, longer than the head, higher than 

 broad at the base, depressed and a little widened at the 

 end, rounded at the tip. Upper mandible with the 

 dorsal fin sloping ; the ridge very broad at the base, 

 with a large depression, narrowed between the nostril, 

 curved toward the end,; the sides nearly erect at the 

 base, gradually becoming more horizontal and convex 

 toward the end. 



Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed ; neck ex- 

 tremely long and slender ; body very large, compact, 

 depressed ; feet, short, stout, placed a little behind the 

 centre of the body ; legs bare an inch and a half above 

 the joint ; tarsus short, a little compressed covered all 

 round with angular scales of which the posterior are 

 very small. Hind toe extremely small, with a narrow 

 membrane. 



A portion of the forehead about half an inch in 

 length, and the space intervening between the bill and 

 the eye are bare. Plumage dense, soft and elastic ; on 

 the head and neck the feathers oblong, acumate ; 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 



