THE BIRD* OF WISCONSIN. 
31 
Oloi- colnmbianns (Ord.). WHISTLING SWAN. 
Migrant. During late fall, just before the larger lakes 
freeze over, this speeies is not at all rare in suitable localities. 
In the spring it is less regular, being much more numerous 
some years than others. Large numbers yearly visit Lake 
Koshkonong, and they are of regular occurrence at Delavan 
Lake, sometimes in goodly flocks. On Koshkonong they 
sometimes remain as late as May 1. Not commonly found 
on Lake Michigan, often common along the Mississippi, but 
probably more abundant in the Rock River Valley than in 
other parts of the state. April 2, 1896, four specimens were 
procured from a large flock on Lake Koshkonong. Two of 
these were full plumaged birds, perfectly white with black 
feet and bills, the latter with the usual yellow spots. One 
younger ( ?) specimen had the bill clouded and blotched with 
pink, and the toes and tarsi somewhat mottled. The fourth 
had a plain pink bill, with no spots, and tarsi and toes milk 
white. Two of these are in the Hollister collection and two 
in the Kumlien collection. We are somewhat at a loss to 
account for the color of the bills and feet in two of the speci- 
mens, as, if characteristic of the young, all the young should 
show it ; but we have procured a good many of the young (of 
the year?) in fall, and although many were in the dark 
plumage, all had black bills and feet. One other specimen 
in the Kumlien collection, killed in October, is of a uniform 
dingy ash color, with typical feet and bill, yellow spot 
included. Very variable in size also, some specimens fully 
as large as the next. The Kumlien collection contains a 
specimen which measured sixty-two inches in length. 
Olor buccinator (Rich.). TRUMPETER SWAN. 
At the present day the trumpeter swan is surely a very rare 
bird in Wisconsin, and it is not certain that it could, at any 
time during the past sixty years, have been called common. 
In the early forties "swan" were reported as nesting in 
southern Wisconsin (Dane and Jefferson Comities), and if 
this is true it was no doubt this species. Thure Kumlien had 
a juvenile specimen obtained somewhere between 1842-45 in 
Jefferson County, with down on the head and primaries still 
soft, color a dingy ash. This specimen was still in existence 
in 1900, and doubtless is vet. During the fall of 1857 a large 
flock alighted on the prairie east of Stoughton during a heavy 
snowstorm, was seen by some farmers, who reported the birds 
as unable to fly on account of the heavy snow and sleet, and 
