74 
ANSERIFORMES 
From time immemorial swans have figured largely in Old World 
folk-lore and the fairy tales of childhood are filled with references to them, 
but it comes with a little shock of surprise to many people to learn that 
even today wild swans are actually common in Canada. Geese are wild 
and wary, but a swan is even wilder and more wary. Its long neck allows 
it to feed in deeper water than other non-diving species and through the 
day it keeps well out from shore, where unobserved approach is impossible. 
It rarely conies into the shallow marshes that may hide the huntsman 
and, therefore, it is rarely taken. 
The common names of the swans of the northern hemisphere are 
indicative of their vocal powers; thus in America we have the Whistling 
and the Trumpeter, and in Europe the Whooping and the Mute Swans. 
Peculiar and complicated modifications of the windpipe (Figures 114 and 
115), in the form of various convolutions in special bony recesses of the 
breast bone or sternum, are evidently directly connected with the voice 
and their complexity increases directly with the quality of the voice as 
indicated by the above descriptive names; thus the Mute Swan is without 
any tracheal convolution and the highest complexity is reached in the 
Trumpeter and Whooping. All swans receive absolute protection under the 
Migratory Birds Convention Act and cannot be taken legally anywhere in 
the United States or Canada. 
180. Whistling Swan, le cygne siffleur. Cygnus columbianus. L, 52. A very 
large, white bird without any other colour in plumage, -except in juvenility when there 
are fleckings and cloudings of light, ashy grey, especially about the head; or at any age 
red rust stains may be present on the crown and cheeks. Legs, feet, and bill black. Most 
adults have a small yellow or orange spot (pink-flesh coloured in juvenility) on the bare 
skin in front of the eye. (See shaded spot, Figure 113.) 
Distinctions. Because of its large size and entire whiteness it may be mistaken only 
for the Trumpeter Swan, but the Whistling is much the smaller. Its weight goes up to 18 
pounds and that of the Trumpeter is given as high as 36. Any swan under 55 inches long 
with wing under 23 inches and weight (unless emaciated) less than 20 pounds is prob- 
ably a Whistling. The bill characters usually given as diagnostic are unreliable. The 
position of the nostril is not determinative. The presence of a yellow spot in front of the 
eye is characteristic of the Whistling, but its absence in that species is quite common. The 
only positive character for the separation of these species, except size and voice, is the 
sternum or breast bone. In both t lese swans the windpipe as it comes down from the neck 
enters the end of the keel bone, which is thickened into a deep, flat tube for the purpose, 
proceeds to the rear end of the sternum, and there, upon the bony floor, forms a broad, 
horizontal loop and returns and leaves the sternum on its way to the lungs through the 
same opening by which it entered. In this species this return is made directly without 
other decided flexure (Figure 114). In the Trumpeter Swan another loop is made, rising 
in a perpendicular hump just before the windpipe emerges from the sternum (Figure 115). 
The development of this convolution is progressive with age. In very young autumn birds 
a loop of the windpipe barely enters the sternum. A little later in life it penetrates 
