TRUMPETER SWAN. 103 



" About twenty miles from St. Michael's, towaxd the Yukon, 

 mouth, is a small, shallow lake, about one-fourth of a mile in diame- 

 ter, which is grown up with ' horse-tails ' (Equisitum). This lakelet 

 forms a general rendezvous for all the swans of that vicinity during 

 the summer and fall. During the breeding season they gather there 

 to feed, and the males make it their home. In autumn, as the old 

 birds regain their wing feathers and the young are able to fly, all 

 congregate here, so that I have rarely passed this place without 

 seeing from one hundred to five hundred swans gathered in this 

 small area. 



" I have frequently sat and listened with the keenest pleasure to 

 the organ-like swell and fall in their notes, as they were wafted on in 

 rich, full harmony, then sank to a faint murmur, not unlike that of 

 running water. A series of low hillocks afforded a cover by which 

 the lake could be approached, and it was a majestic sight to lie there 

 on a mossy knoll, and gaze on the unsuspecting groups of these 

 graceful birds as they swam back and forth, within rifle shot, not 

 suspecting our presence. Their snowy bodies and beautiful forms, as 

 I last saw them in that far away spot, will linger long in my mind as 

 one of the most unique and interesting sights of my experience in 

 the north. The report of a rifle is sufiicient to change the scene into 

 wild confusion. A chorus of confused cries and the heavy beating of 

 hundreds of mighty wings is heard. A cloud of white rises, breaks 

 into numerous fragments, and the birds scatter over the wide flats 

 on every side." 



" Toward the end of September these birds begin to gather into 

 flocks, preparatory to migrating, and from the last of this month to 

 the 6th or 8th of October all leave for the south, the exact date 

 varying with the season." 



OLOR BUCCINATOR (Rich.). 

 68. Trumpeter Swan. (181) 



Adult: — Plumage, entirely white; younger, the head and neck washed with 

 a rusty brown; still younger, gray or ashy; bill and feet, black. Lengtli, 4-5 

 feet ; tail (normally), of twenty-four feathers ; no yellow spots on bill, which is 

 rather longer than the head, the nostrils fairly in its basal half. 



Hab. — Chiefly the interior of North America, from the Gulf coast to the 

 fur countries, breeding from Iowa and Dakota northward, west to the Pacific 

 coast, but rare or casual on the Atlantic. 



