The Trumpeter Swan 



increments of variation or increments of advantage through use enabled 

 this bird's trachea to provide for itself a bony tunnel throughout the entire 

 length of the sternum, or breast-bone, to the sole end that its length (and 

 consequent lower register of the sound emitted) might be increased. Not 

 content with this ingenious utilization of extra space, "Nature" had begun 

 to develop a capacious hump on the inside of this bird's breast-bone (I 

 have always contended that the Almighty has a sense of humor!), a bony 

 archway which protected, so far, the dawning intentions of this enterpris- 

 ing trachea to provide itself with an additional convolution — at the 

 expense of lungs or gizzard or whatever other organ might stand in the 

 way of musical progress. The result achieved when this promising career 

 was stopped was already noteworthy. The Trumpeter blew an authentic 

 trombone so stertorous that at least one observer 1 wished the performer 

 dead. The Whistling Swan's note, while by no means a whistle, was 

 higher-pitched and much lighter, a toy trumpet by comparison. 



This decided difference in voice, if we omit an average increase in size 

 observable in buccinator, was the only field distinction ; that is, the only 

 one observable at reasonably long range. As a consequence, there was 

 such endless confusion of the two species in the popular mind that we 

 cannot even now unravel the records, nor write a separate life history of 

 buccinator further than to define its range. 



We know now that buccinator was the bird of the great interior, rang- 

 ing between Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains, and breeding chiefly, 

 but by no means exclusively, north of the Sixtieth Parallel. It was slaugh- 

 tered in immense numbers by the minions of the Hudson Bay Company, 

 and the slaughter ceased only when it had ceased to be productive. South 

 of the 49th Parallel, the breeding of this bird was more or less desultory; 

 but since we have records from Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, 

 Idaho, and probably Washington, 2 there is fair reason to suppose that it 

 also bred within the limits of California. Goose Lake or the lakes of 

 Surprise Valley (now evaporated) present every analogy to conditions a 

 thousand miles north. The ornithologist thrills to think what might have 

 been witnessed in the way of bird life in Modoc County, say a hundred 

 years ago! Ducks of fourteen species, Canada Geese, Sandhill Cranes, 

 herons of six species, gulls and terns of five species, cormorants, W T hite 

 Pelicans, four grebes, and shore-birds of nine species, — these were pleasant 

 certainties of that elder day, with such a rarity as the Trumpeter Swan by 

 no means impossible. 



Regarding the occurrence of this bird in California, only the most 

 imperfect data are at hand. There is, apparently, no California-taken 



'Hearne: Auct. Coale. Auk, 1915, p. 83. 



2 The "near records" given by "The Birds of Washington" (1909), p. 840, should undoubtedly be ascribed to 

 this species instead of O. columbianus. 



l88~ 



