Swan-shooting 261 



hunter would float as close as possible to a flock 

 feeding in some lake and throw the balls as the 

 birds arose. If he succeeded in striking one, these 

 balls, twisting the ropes about the bird, rendered 

 it helpless. 



WHISTLING SWAN 

 (Olor columbianus) 



Adult male — Entire plumage, white ; the head, sometimes the neck 

 and under parts, tinged with rusty; tail, generally of twenty 

 feathers ; bill and feet, black ; iris, brown ; a small, yellow spot 

 on loral skin at the base of the bill, in front of the eye ; the dis- 

 tance from the anterior corner of the eye to the posterior edge 

 of the nostril is more than the distance from the posterior edge 

 of the nostril to the tip of the bill. This is an infallible distinc- 

 tion from the trumpeter swan (Cory) . 



Measuretnents — Length, 53 inches; wing, 21.50 inches; bill, 4 

 inches; tarsus, 4.25 inches; middle toe, 5.75 inches. 



Adult female — Similar. 



Young — Plumage, of a grayish cast, with a brownish tinge on head 

 and upper neck ; bill, reddish flesh color, dusky at the tip ; feet, 

 pale yellow. The adult plumage is acquired in about five years, 

 during which time the plumage gradually shades into white, and 

 the bill and feet grow darker until the fourth year, when both 

 become black. Weight, sixteen to twenty-four pounds. 



Eggs — Two to six in number ; brownish white ; a rough surface to 

 the shell ; measures 4.10 by 2.70 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds on Nottingham Island, Hudson Bay, the Arctic 

 Coast near Fort Anderson, near Kotzebue Sound (Sp. ?), the 

 Yukon Delta, and Cook Inlet (Sp. ?), Alaska, and is said to be 

 abundant in summer in the interior of British Columbia. Win- 

 ters from Maryland to South Carolina on the Atlantic Coast, 

 rarely north to Massachusetts and south to Florida, on the coast 

 of Louisiana and Texas, north rarely in the interior to western 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio (?), Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ne- 

 braska (Sp. ?), in Utah and Nevada (Sp. ?), Arizona, and on 

 the Pacific Coast from British Columbia, rarely south to Ventura 



