81 



Genus — Olor. Swans. 



180. Whistling Swan. pk. — le cygne d'amerique. Olor columbianus, L, 55. A 

 very large, all-white, bird. 



Distinctions. The Whistler can be mistaken only for the Trumpeter Swan. Super- 

 ficially it can be easily separated only by its inferior size. As Swans do not obtain their 

 full development for a number of years, size may not always be an accurate test. There 

 is a difference in the shape of the bill, but it is too difficult of characterization to be clearly 

 described here. The convolutions of the windpipe in the breast-bone make the most 

 satisfactory differentiation. In the Whistler the windpipe makes one horizontal loop 

 over the floor of the sternum, whereas that of the Trumpeter has a perpendicular loop 

 as well. The absence of a yellow spot on the lores of the Trumpeter has been given as 

 diagnostic, but this is so often absent from even adult Whistlers as to be of no use for 

 this purpose. 



Field Marks. Size and complete whiteness. The two species cannot be readily 

 distinguished in life except by those familiar with the voice of each. 



Nesting. On the ground, in nest of grasses, moss, etc., lined with down. 



Distribution. Breeds in the far north across the continent west of Hudson bay; 

 migrates through the interior; rare or absent on the Canadian Atlantic coast, but locally 

 common on the large waterways of the Great Lakes region. 



Owing to its extreme wariness and its breeding far in the north the 

 Whistling Swan has not been seriously reduced in numbers during the 

 past generation. Its larger relatives, the Trumpeters, whose breeding 

 grounds well within the borders of settlement were early disturbed, are 

 now on the verge of extinction. 



The Swans rarely come into shallow marshes where cover may hide 

 the sportsman. They are rarely seen except in dense white masses like 

 ice floes far out in the open water or in flocks flying high overhead and 

 beyond the reach of guns. Their regular migration is generally by night 

 and usually silent, though sometimes extremely noisy. To such habits 

 as these is probably due the fact that few even of our most experienced 

 sportsmen know the Swan in life and fewer still can boast of having taken 

 it. Though flocks of hundreds appear annually on lake St. Clair not more 

 than two or three individuals are taken there each year. 



The species also occurs in large numbers on Niagara river where on 

 misty or foggy nights in the spring, they often drift down with the current 

 into the swift rough waters of the rapids and are carried helpless over 

 the falls. This catastrophe has occurred several times within the last 

 decade and hundreds of Swans have lost their lives in this manner: some 

 have every bone in the body broken whereas others are only slightly hurt. 

 The dead that are not drawn under the ice and carried off by the current 

 are picked up, the dying clubbed, and those whose injuries are only slight 

 are shot. As the birds do not seem able in the close quarters to rise above 

 the sides of the gorge, and show marked reluctance to pass beneath the 

 bridges that span the lower pass, all are confined in the narrow waters 

 below the falls where there is no escape. The flesh of the Swan is not 

 very suitable for eating and the birds are of little value to those who take 

 them except as curiosities. 



181. Trumpeter Swan. fb. — le ctgne tbompette. Olor buccinator. L, 65. Very 

 large, all-white, bird. 



Distinctions. Can be mistaken only for the previous, which see. 



Field Marks. Size and complete whiteness; the two Swans cannot be separated 

 with certainty in life. 



Nesting. On the ground, in nest of grasses and down. 



Distribution. A bird of the interior, breeding from the central of the northern tier 

 •of states northward. 



