76 
ANSERIFORMES 
every bone in the body broken, whereas others are only slightly hurt. As 
the birds do not seem able without great difficulty in the close quarters to 
rise above the sides of the gorge, and show marked reluctance to pass 
beneath the bridges that span the lower pass, all are confined in the narrow 
waters below the falls where there is no escape. The flesh of the swan is 
not usually very suitable for eating and the birds are of little value to those 
who take them except as curiosities. 
181. Trumpeter Swan, le cygne trgmpette. Cygnus buccinator. L, 65. A very 
large, white bird, like the Whistling Swan but larger and never with a yellow or orange 
spot in front of the eye. 
Distinctions. Because of its large size and entire whiteness, may be mistaken only 
for the Whistling Swan. This is considerably the larger of the two swans. Its weight 
is given as high as 36 pounds; the Whistling seldom goes over 18. Any swan over 55 
Figure 115 
Longitudinal section through sternum of Trumpeter Swan; 
scale, §. 
inches long, with a wing over 23 and weight above 20 pounds, is probably a Trumpeter. 
The bill characters usually given as distinctive are unreliable. The position of the nostril 
is not determinative. The Trumpeter, unlike the Whistling, never has a yellow spot in 
front of the eye, but its absence is not necessarily diagnostic. The only positive character 
for the separation of these species, except size, is the sternum or breast bone. In both 
these 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, returns, a,nd 
forms another loop, rising perpendicularly in a hump just before it passes out of the sternuiif 
on its way to the lungs, by way of the same opening through which it entered. In the 
Whistling Swan this final loop is missing (Compare Figures 115 and 114). The develop- 
ment of this labyrinth is progressive with age and undoubtedly follows much the same 
progress as in the Whistling Swan. A bird known to be 18 months old had a perpendicular 
loop raised 1 -8 inches above the sternum floor, but the horizontal loop showed an angular 
return without broad loop, quite similar in development to a Whistling of the same age. 
It is doubtful, however, if the species ever gets quite as broad an horizontal loop as do very 
old birds of the Whistling. The fact that the perpendicular loop develops more rapidly 
than the horizontal one renders identification of young birds by these characters easy. 
Field Marks. Size and complete whiteness. In flight, swans carry their long necks 
outstretched like cranes, but do not trail long legs behind (Figure 112, compare with 239). 
The best separation of the Trumpeter from the Whistling in life is probably the voice. 
That of this species is considerably deeper and more sonorous. This distinction, however, 
is recognizable only by those familiar with both species. 
Nesting. On the ground, nest of grass, moss, etc., lined with down. 
Distribution. A bird of the interior, breeding northward from the northern boundary 
of the United States, west of the Great. Lakes. Apparently originally common as a migrant 
in southern Ontario, now never seen there and approaching extinction elsewhere. 
