WHISTLING SWAN ON SOUTHAMPTON ISLAND, 

 HUDSON BAY 



ASWAN on the nest, as shown here, is a conspicuous object, visible 

 far across the arctic prairies, which are the home of this species. 

 The human population is scant, however, and the powerful birds 

 have been kno^^m to kill a marauding fox. The nest is built of moss, 

 etc., raked up in the immediate vicinity, and in it are laid two to five 

 white eggs, four and a quarter inches long. The pair of Swans share 

 the labor of nest-building, of the thirty-five daj\s of incubation, and 

 of caring for the young. The babies are clothed in white down, but 

 this is soon displaced by a grayish plumage, in which the young swans, 

 called cygnets, travel south with their parents in the autumn. 



Swans feed chiefly on the grasses and tender water-plants they pull 

 from the bottom, reaching downward with the long neck or, if necessary, 

 tilting the body forward till the tail points toward the sky, after the 

 fashion of the common domestic duck and related species. They can- 

 not dive for food as do so many ducks. Small mollusks are also eaten. 



Swans are famous for their loud, clear voices, resembling trumpets, 

 horns or other wind instruments. 



The Whistling Swan breeds in arctic Alaska and Canada east to 

 Hudson Bay. In winter it is not uncommon locally on the Atlantic 

 Coast south from Maryland and along the Mississippi Valley, Gulf 

 Coast and Pacific Coast. Here in the Northeast it is only a rare migrant, 

 and anyone is very fortunate who ever sees a high-fljdng flock and hears 

 their far-reaching, clarion calls. 



The only other swan in North America is the Trumpeter, now verj- 

 rare, possibly extinct. It is an even larger bird and lacks the yellow 

 spot in front of the eye. 



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