The Trumpeter Swan 



No. 381 



Trumpeter Swan 



A. O. U. No. 181. Olor buccinator (Richardson). 



Description. — Similar to preceding species, but larger; bill and lores entirely 

 black. Length 1524-1676.4 (60.00-66.00); extent about 8 feet; wing 609.6 (24.00); 

 tail 228.6 (9.00); bill 1 14.3 (450); tarsus 11 1.8 (4.40); middle toe and claw 152.4 (6.00). 



Recognition Marks. — As in preceding species. Distinguished from it by 

 absence of yellow on lore, and by nostril in basal half of bill. 



Nesting. — Like that of preceding species, but eggs a little larger. Av. size 

 1 1 1.76 x 66 (4.40 x 2.60). 



General Range. — Interior and western North America. Formerly bred from 

 Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, and Montana, north to the Arctic Coast, but not recently 

 reported as a breeder below Latitude 61. Has wintered from British Columbia south 

 to southern California, and from southern Indiana to Texas. Now verging upon 

 extinction, and limits not definable. 



Occurrence in California. — Formerly of regular occurrence south through the 

 central valleys and in the San Diegan district. No authentic record since 1898 (Grin- 

 nell) and evidently near extinction. 



Authorities. — Newberry (Cygnus buccinator), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. vi., 

 1857, p. 100 (Calif.); Coale, Auk, vol. xxxii., 1915, p. 82, pis. (present status; specimens 

 extant; etc.); Fleming, Condor, vol. xxi., 1919, p. 124 (crit. ; desc. of a Calif.-taken 

 spec, identity uncertain). 



EXTERMINATED by gun-fire! This at least seems to be the con- 

 sensus of present opinion. ' 



Such being the case, the task of describing the habits, range, etc., of 

 the Trumpeter Swan is a work of supererogation, analogous to that of 

 collecting the traditions regarding the Labrador Duck, the Dodo, etc. 

 But because the crime, albeit recent, was accomplished before the days of 

 complete moral self-consciousness, we will endeavor to assemble such 

 pitiful scraps of information as we possess regarding the deceased. 



The Trumpeter Swan, long confused with its ally, 0. columbianus , was 

 first described as a distinct species in 1831. 2 Its chief claim to distinction 

 lay in the extraordinary development of voice which characterized the male 

 bird, and which had necessitated the provision of a special apparatus. 

 Those who abhor the idea of directive evolution, that is, the working of the 

 "elan vital" toward preconceived ends, must explain how either accidental 



^enry K. Coale in The Auk (Vol. XXXII.. Jan., 1915, pp. 82-90) says: "At the meeting of the American 

 Ornithologists Union held in New York City, in the fall of 1913. a number of the members were discussing the rarity 

 of the Trumpeter Swan, the general opinion being that this magnificent bird was nearing extinction, and would soon 

 disappear forever." 



The Game Birds of California by Grinnell. Bryant and Storer (1918), p. 254: "It [the Trumpeter Swan] 

 claims additional interest in that it must be numbered with those birds which have been exterminated within the 

 lifetime of most of the citizens of the State." 



2 By William Swainson and John Richardson in Fauna Boreali Americana. 



1886 



